


What Does It Matter If I Lie To You

by WhenIFindLoveAgain



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Anal Sex, Angst and Romance, Background Relationships, Blood Kink, Breathplay, British Comedy, Cancer, Car Sex, Catholicism, Character Study, Choking, Comedy, Crossdressing Kink, Daddy Kink, Deepthroating, Developing Relationship, Dom/sub, Drama & Romance, Eventual Romance, Fluff and Humor, Gay Sex, Implied Relationships, Inappropriate Humor, Knifeplay, Knives, Lies, M/M, Mentions of Cancer, Model, Modeling, Nude Modeling, Oral Sex, Paganism, Past Relationship(s), Platonic Relationships, Platonic Romance, Pre-Relationship, References to ABBA, References to the Beatles, Relationship Study, Relationship(s), Romance, Romantic Comedy, Rough Oral Sex, Rough Sex, Sex, Sex Toys, Sexual Humor, Shower Sex, Slow Romance, Strangulation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:34:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 57
Words: 123,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25014004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhenIFindLoveAgain/pseuds/WhenIFindLoveAgain
Summary: When magazine typist Wen Jun Hui moves in with nude-model and discographic artist friend Xu Minghao, it's insane, chaotic, naturalistic, insightful, sad, merry, cultural, intimate, mildly violent and very, very funny
Relationships: Boo Seungkwan/Chwe Hansol | Vernon, Choi Seungcheol | S.Coups/Hong Jisoo | Joshua, Choi Seungcheol | S.Coups/Hong Jisoo | Joshua/Yoon Jeonghan, Choi Seungcheol | S.Coups/Jeon Wonwoo, Chwe Hansol | Vernon/Hong Jisoo | Joshua, Hong Jisoo | Joshua/Yoon Jeonghan, Jeon Wonwoo/Kim Mingyu, Jeon Wonwoo/Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi, Jeon Wonwoo/Original Male Character(s), Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi/Lee Jihoon | Woozi, Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi/Lee Seokmin | DK, Lee Jihoon | Woozi/Lee Seokmin | DK, Wen Jun Hui | Jun/Xu Ming Hao | The8
Comments: 104
Kudos: 83





	1. ONE

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fantasyhamster](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fantasyhamster/gifts).



> I will eventually put something intelligent here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a long discussion over some months, Junhui moves in with Minghao, and this is where our story begins :)

"Your music sucks, what the fuck do you even wear half the time, but is it alright if I move in with you?" Junhui asked Minghao. He stared at Minghao, looking attractive in pale-coloured pyjama pants, shirt, and his dressing gown that was un-belted and hung attractively around his thin frame. 

Minghao punched Junhui in the mouth, but then held open the door so Junhui could get his suitcases and one of his bags inside as the rain from the sky began to pour quite heavier.

"Prick." Junhui rubbed his jaw, and, walking back out Minghao's front door spat out bloodied spit from where he had bit his tongue into the gutter. As he turned back around, Minghao had shut the front door and locked. Junhui banged his fist on it and told Minghao he was behaving like a cunt. 

"Coming from you, that's rich!" Junhui heard Minghao distantly shout. "You only call me up when your bored and you're playing with yourself!"

Oh my God, what the fuck are the neighbours going to think about this? Junhui wondered internally as he was stumped for an answer due to what Minghao had just said.

"Hao, this isn't really nice." Mingyu finished collecting Junhui's cases and carrying them into the spare bedroom.

"Isn't it?" Minghao grinned wickedly. They went down to the sitting room. 

"I'll go out the back way, then." Mingyu clapped Minghao's shoulder but Minghao pulled him back with a grin. 

"No, stay, I know what he's doing." Minghao said lowly. "This is what he does. Crawls in under your feet and then he pulls you down to be with him." Minghao wrapped his arms around Mingyu's hips. "Stay a while. Make him wait." He grazed his mouth across Mingyu's, and was slightly disappointed to see that, even though Mingyu hadn't pulled back, he hadn't surged forwards after Minghao either. 

"Minghao, it's pouring rain." Mingyu tried to appeal to Minghao's kinder nature, or, rather, his common sense.

One of Minghao's hands slipped around to grope Mingyu, and he was happy at the slight jerk that Mingyu gave when Minghao touched his backside. "That's alright, we're not out in it." Minghao murmured against Mingyu's mouth. He ran his tongue over Mingyu's lips and they kissed for a few moments before Mingyu asked him to please just unlock the door.

"You unlock me and maybe I'll give it a go." Minghao whispered, nuzzling his head into the crook of Mingyu's shoulder and neck. Mingyu touched the back of Minghao's neck, his thumb rubbing small, slow circles there for a little while. 

"I'm going home." Mingyu said clearly when Minghao looked up at him. 

Minghao rolled his eyes. "Whatever." He patted Mingyu's chest and followed him out of his sitting room. 

"Through the front door." Mingyu said as Minghao pulled at his sleeve for him to go the other way.

Minghao just looked at him. "Seriously?" He asked.

"Seriously." Mingyu nodded. 

When Minghao opened the front door, a shivering and absolutely sodden Junhui was the sight they were greeted with. Junhui watched Mingyu go. He turned around and looked at Minghao. "You lying shit!" Junhui exclaimed at Minghao. "You said you haven't had anyone around!"

Minghao raised an eyebrow coldly. "What does it matter if I lie to you?" Minghao remarked to Junhui in a venemously-edged silky tone. That made Mingyu pause walking to his car which was parked outside. He looked slowly between Minghao and Junhui.

"Hey, Gyu." Junhui offered up to Mingyu. He didn't have a problem with Mingyu personally - not, hardly ever had he had a reason to think Mingyu was a cock - but this was absolutely fucking ridiculous. 

"Hao, let Junhui inside and don't turn off the central heating." Mingyu ordered Minghao in a warning tone before he climbed into his charcoal grey Mazda hatchback and drove away. 

"You're an arsehole." Junhui wiped some of the rain-water off his face and pushed his hair back. Minghao leant against the doorframe, and was silent and expressionless. He turned on his heel and left the door open for Junhui. Junhui nearly stumbled getting inside, and he reflected he shouldn't have bothered with the decency of taking off his wet shoes. He should have just put prints all over Minghao's spotless tiles and his lovely clean carpet...

But then Junhui would have to clean it up, or poor Mingyu would get dragged into it. He already got treated as a house-maid as it was, not just by Minghao, but by all their group of mates. Vernon was a bit of a different case; Seungkwan couldn't keep a home without something getting destroyed by accident or not getting cleaned properly at all, so Mingyu came in and helped Vernon keep on top of things. Soonyoung and Seokmin were the worst; they once tried to change a bag in the vacumn cleaner. Themselves and their sitting ended up black when it virtually exploded on them. When Mingyu had come around to rescue them, Jihoon had turned up as well to give Soonyoung and Seokmin the "backhander into hell you utter fucking morons!" To quote Jihoon precisely. Junhui remembered the video call; Mingyu had been sitting on the couch with the vacumn still running filming Jihoon chase Seokmin and Soonyoung around with a mop and successfully thumping them with it. Junhui had been at Jeonghan, Seungcheol and Joshua's. Jeonghan virtually had to have the kiss of life by Seungcheol while Joshua prepared to give him his last rites when he collapsed on the ground due to a bout of absolutely hysterical laughter.

Junhui found Minghao on the couch in the sitting room. "Don't even think about it." Minghao warned. "Go upstairs, have a shower, get some new clothes on, then come down and we'll organize dinner or something, ok?"

"Fucking hell, Hitler." Junhui remarked sarcastically.

"My house." Minghao raised an eyebrow. Junhui put an end to it and climbed up the stairs. He closed the door of the spare bedroom behind him, and looked around. The bed was freshly made up, and everything was clean; dusted, vacumned, the lot. Due to the shape of the roof of the Neo-Modern Scandinavian-style house, the bedroom ceiling reminded Junhui of an upside down dory. He looked out through his bedroom window. It had just gone dark, and the city was slowly illuminating even more. Sometimes, at about nine 'o' clock, if you looked at the Seoul city landscape, it was brighter than the day-light. 

Junhui had just peeled off his t-shirt when Minghao opened his bedroom door, moved across the room, and then lay down as languidely as a cat on his bed. 

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Junhui said. Automatically, he knew he sounded too harsh, but, at the end of the day, it wasn't grossly un-warranted. Minghao bit the smallest possibly portion of his lower lip, and only for a moment, before releasing it again. Junhui looked at him.

"What was the first thing I ever said to you?" Minghao said, making Junhui remember five years back.

"And maybe I'd like you better if you took off all your clothes." Junhui echoed the memory that suddenly burnt with a vicious sort of brightness in the back of his skull before spreading it's heat down his spine and into his ribs and hands. It was like hot water rushing over a body in the shower, but, instead, it was inside his body. It could be described as a disconerting feeling, but, honestly, it was fresh to Junhui. There was something rejuvinating about it, but it was Junhui's previous belief that he didn't need rejuvinating from anything. 

One side of Minghao's mouth twitched upwards in a smile. "Yeah." He said softly. He got up and left Junhui be. Junhui didn't really know what was happening. So he asked.

"What's going on?"

Minghao turned back to look at him from the doorway. "Whatever I feel." He responded.

"Well, what were you just feeling to do that?" Junhui pointed to the bed. Minghao's chin rose slightly.

"What of it?" Minghao's eyes ran up and down Junhui's body closedly as Junhui moved over to him.

"As I'm going to be here for a while..." One of Junhui's hand wrapped around Minghao's elbow. Junhui kept an intense, clear gaze on Minghao, capturing his eyes perfectly; despite the usual control he had of himself, Minghao glanced down to Junhui's hand on his arm. Junhui pulled Minghao that much closer to him, and, then, Minghao's cool, long-fingered hands rested over Junhui's naked collarbones, his fingers going over his shoulders. Minghao's small but full-lipped mouth pressed up against Junhui's long, thin one, and Junhui's hands went to Minghao's back, one hand at the top of his spine and another hand at the small of it, pressing Minghao's body up against his. 

"Did you have sex with Minghao before I turned up even though we've been talking about me moving in on and off for weeks?" Junhui asked Minghao as they both parted naturally, but still close enough for their noses and foreheads to bump together in touch, their breaths mingling together. As Junhui spoke, his exhaled oxygen went over Minghao's lips which were stinging and bright red from the contact of the kiss.

"No." Minghao said. "I tried to get him to stay over." He gazed down Junhui's body with half-lidded eyes. "We never have sex. We never have had sex. It's like Jeonghan and Josh." Minghao smiled very, very faintly. "We just mess around. I like touching him, been around him. Probably the best thing to happen to me...he tolerates me doing it and keeps everything cool. Normal." Minghao lifted his chin, his nose and lips tracing over Junhui's cheek. Minghao leant his head against the side of Junhui's, his forehead against Junhui's temple.

"So, what if I want to do the same thing?" Junhui questioned. Minghao thought before answering.

"You're not Mingyu." Minghao told him. "And I...this is a place for you to live, you pay half of the rent, of the bills...that is what decided, what is implemented."

"So I can't invite you to stay in with me tonight?" Junhui asked. 

Minghao didn't immediately answer. Junhui pressed him, saying Minghao's name. Minghao's eyes slid up to look at his. 

"I don't want to fuck." Minghao put plainly. "I just want to sleep."


	2. TWO

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It all kicks off in the house of the 95' line with much panging involved my Seungcheol, the edge bits used as well, so blood does flow immensely upon the carpet. Minghao goes to work, and Sylvia is introduced

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think my panging! scene is absolutely excellent in every shape and form *proud*

Minghao opened his eyes. He had just dreamt about it again.

  
The start of time.

  
There were some things he would never tell Junhui. Or Mingyu. Or anyone else. It was too deep for them to understand. 

  
Minghao was lying on his back. He turned his head to the side and saw the top of Junhui's neck and his neck. Junhui was lying on his side facing the window, sound asleep. Minghao got up from the bed careully and pulled on his dressing gown. He went downstairs and turned on the central heating. It was winter, and the opaline spheric sun was illuminating silvery-grey clouds. Minghao thought about Sylvia, who he called Sylvie. With all her 60's style clothes and her tall boots and her thick black hair...he smiled to himself. She'd come later. Minghao thought she'd get a shock when she came through the front door asking for a mug of tea and found Junhui walking around in trackie-dacks stacking the dishwasher. 

  
Minghao had just finished boiling the kettle when Junhui's feet heavily stomped down the stairs. Minghao wondered if he could possibly go any louder.

  
"Hey, are you ok?" Junhui asked. He hovered uncertainly behind Minghao. Minghao turned around, a mug of tea in his hands.

  
"Yeah, I'm fine." Minghao's brows creased slightly, looking over the rim of his mug at Junhui who didn't looked convinced as he took a sip of his tea. "Why do you say that?"

  
"You look really sad." Junhui said. Minghao looked at Junhui; he considered various different reactions; laughing, asking Junhui what precisely was wrong with him, or -

  
"Just thinking about Jeonghan and Joshua." Minghao lied. "It's all kicked off."

  
Minghao couldn't believe it when he got a text five hours later. It was a text from Vernon translated into Mandarin.

You won't believe what the fuck just happened, Hao. Are you by yourself?

  
Minghao rang Vernon. "What's going on?" Minghao said, his insides turning cold and distant. 

  
"It's all kicking off, mate!" Vernon said as soon as the call went through. "Joshy and Han got into this massive fuckin' row over someone shagging someone else and then putting pictures of it online and then -"

  
"Fuck me dead." Minghao thought about walking across the road to Sylvia's and pinching one of her cigarettes. There was more to be said about her. 

  
"- Joshy and Han had a punch-up." Vernon finished.

  
Minghao thought it best he wasn't holding a cigarette because otherwise he would have dropped it. "Are you sure?!" He hissed. 

  
"Right as fuckin' beggars, mate." Vernon replied earnestly.

  
"What the fuck are you on about?" Minghao's upper lip curled.

  
"But, then, Seungcheol got involved as the blood poured - and it did flow upon the carpet. He picked up what sounds like a tray and many times were Joshy and Han panged - pang! pang! pang! pang! pang! - and the edge bits were used as well so even more blood did flow upon the carpet."

  
Minghao couldn't help it. He nearly pissed himself as he sunk down to the ground, having a fit of hysterical laughter.

  
"One day little children in the street will be singing songs about this occasion." Vernon chattered on. He paused. "Are you laughing?"

  
Minghao wiped his eyes and nodded even though Vernon couldn't see him. "Yes." He answered. "And hows it going with the casualties now?" He asked with a huge smile. Even though they were talking on the phone, Minghao just knew Vernon wasn't smiling.

  
"Joshy is really, really upset. He actually cried and he hasn't done that since the time he broke both of his arms when -"

  
"You and him were being fucking idiots racing those go-karts with lawn-mower engines attached to the back down the street a couple of years ago." Minghao finished off neatly.

  
"He hasn't really told me, but, Jeonghan's really done it this time. Anyway, Jeonghan is staying with Seokmin and Soonyoung because Seungcheol did his rag in as well, and is it ok for Josh to come over to your place? I know you've got Junnie there now but I think Seungkwan will kill him with kindness." Vernon said. 

  
"Of course he can come around, but you'll have to bring him if he has a suitcase, we can't carry that on my motorcycle." Minghao answered. 

  
Half an hour later, Vernon and Joshua were in the house. Joshua was dead to the world asleep on the couch in the sitting room, and Vernon was drinking a coffee that Minghao had made him at the kitchen table. 

  
"How's Seungcheol?" Minghao asked.

  
"Really quiet." Vernon replied. "It's Jeonghan mostly he's cross with, rather than Josh." They stay silent for a while until Minghao got a case of the giggles.

  
"What?" Vernon grinned, looking at him.

  
"Pang! Pang! Pang!" Minghao quietly mimicked Seungcheol panging Jeonghan and Joshua with the tray, moving one of his arms from side to side. Joshua had signs of a bloody nose and mouth, and he had a bit of bruising coming up on his neck and his hands. 

  
"Jun's at work?" Vernon quipped. Minghao nodded. 

"Let you go, mate." Vernon downed the rest of his coffee. "See you later." 

  
Minghao took Vernon to the front door and waved as his car moved off. Minghao went into the sitting room to check on Joshua. Some of his mouth was bruised, turning blue and grey like the after-effects of a red wine stain. Minghao managed to get up the stairs without them creaking too badly, and he bought down one of the blankets from his bed. Just as he was putting it over Joshua, Joshua's eyes came open in a groggy, slow way. 

  
"Hey, Josh, how are you doing?" Minghao sat on the couch beside Joshua's hips from where the older man lay on his side. Joshua was tall and thin; he wasn't a big man. 

  
"Complicated." Joshua murmured. Minghao smiled a little bit. 

  
"If you get hungry I've got some Anglo food in the pantry." Minghao grinned at Joshua's small smile and thanks. "Bread, jam, cereal, some of those tiny pancake things. Pikelets?"

  
Joshua gazed at him through half-lids. Even though he had gotten smacked around earlier and he had deep black shadows of lack of sleep beneath his eyes, he was still very attractive. Minghao leant against Joshua's hips, into the couch, half-pinning him. "You didn't buy that just in case I came around, right?" He quipped quietly. His voice was ragged and tight from yelling his head off when he and Jeonghan were rowing earlier.

  
"No." Minghao kept his voice down. He wondered if Joshua had a bit of a headache. "That's Sylvie's."

  
"Why do you never really say anything about her?" Joshua asked. Minghao thought about how to answer that. 

  
"I like how she's my little piece of the world. She's not involved with all of us, she's never met my parents, she doesn't know all about you guys and where you all came from." Minghao explained.

  
"And she's your boss." Joshua chuckled softly. All of his own accordance, he effortlessly went back to sleep. Minghao let him be. 

-

"What are you painting now?"

  
"The dragon."

  
"Ah. What colour dragon?"

  
"Black dragon."

  
Sylvia and Minghao laughed. He had met Sylvia when he was eighteen. She was short and thin but with lovely hourglass shape. She had long and thick dark hair, and she was born in England but her family was Korean. She wore retro-modern clothes, and was very pretty with delicate traditonal features. She had a oval face with thick cheekbones, a straight nose, a small thin mouth that got bigger when she put on lipstick, and big monolid eyes. Sylvia was the first woman about Minghao's age that he had seen choose not to go with modern beauty changes. Her hair just went below her shoulders and was gently waved and lacquered with a french-style fringe that went to one side and was secured in place with a navy head-band. That day, she was wearing a dark red 1930's style wool day dress with grey woolen tights. To look at her, one wouldn't think she photographed nude models and painted them along with being a well-known knife-painter in East Asia. 

  
But Minghao knew better. 

  
The foundation coat of white paint had been put across his back, shoulder and neck. Sylvia always used oil paint, whether she painted on canvas or skin. Occasionally she used markers, but that was a rarity. That was only for under-layers on tricky colours. Minghao told her all about Junhui moving in and Seungcheol, Jeonghan and Joshua's row that morning.

  
"All done, love, let's get the pictures done." She said after a few more minutes, getting to her feet and kissing Minghao on the top of his head before wandering off.

  
They weren't together, but Minghao loved her.

  
Just not in that way.

  
Minghao sometimes thought he should, but, when he did try to love Sylvia that way, it was suddenly very, very hard to feel alive at all when around her. 

  
It was how he knew. 

  
Sylvia had lived across the road from since she was twenty-one. Her house was a mix of everything. It was three stories with a mix of Scandinavian Art-Deco with the bare-brick and exposed timber clean industrialness of his studio where she did her work. Sylvia was also a dancer, and on two occasions before Minghao had filmed her mixing the notorious ballet en pointe with native Hangul dancing, ventures that had scored thousands of views on social media. There was a healthy layer to dust to everything, and the floorboards shone in place and didn't in other places. Minghao loved it. He had never known a woman like Sylvia, or anyone that could come anywhere near her or the life she created for herself.


	3. THREE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Junhui ropes Joshua into holding a ladder at the window of Sylvia's second storey studio so he can have a squiz. Joshua meets Sylvia for the first time, and Junhui comes himself an agonizing cropper

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This scene is a tiny bit inspired by Arkwright in the 70's-80's British sitcom, "Open All Hours". But, no shit, two blokes I'm friends with do this now to see their girlfriends. The girlfriends Dads absolutely hate them, so they get a ladder and have a quick chat the window before running down the street. Both Dads frequently threaten to reverse over their heads in the Range Rovers, the signature car for Welsh men to kill their daughters dates since 1985

"Hold the ladder while I pop up and have a look." Junhui ordered to Joshua. Junhui roughly thought from the odd things Minghao had said over the years that Sylvia's studio was on the second floor. 

"You'll kill yourself doing this." Joshua said, dutifully holding the ladder.

"At least I'll die satisfied." Junhui replied. "And, please, just shut up for a minute, too much noise."

Joshua shook the ladder. Junhui nearly shat himself out of fright, clinging onto the top of the ladder for dear life.

He managed to climb another rung and right himself, before looking in through the open window. This time, he nearly did fall off the ladder as the breath left his lungs. He thought he distantly heard Joshua swear below him, but, suddenly, Junhui wondered if this was his first proper discovery of the "out of body" experience. Nothing really was around him as he watched Minghao's skinny body with his arms wrapped around himself and one of his legs bent at the knee, propped forward slightly in a way that shielded his penis from the line of sight Junhui was positioned at. He didn't feel the coldness of the air or the light rain that fell from the sky; he didn't really even feel his own breath or his heartbeat. But it all changed. 

For the first time in his life, Wen Junhui saw Sylvia.

And, ok. Was she hot? Definitely. Was she more suited to Jihoon in size than Minghao? Absolutely. Would Mingyu be so tall that she'd kick him in the balls to get him down to her height? Maybe. Women who wore nanna clothes were all a bit queer.

A British rock song began to play inside the room, and, suddenly, Sylvia and Minghao were dancing to it. Minghao was covered in paint and he was naked, but he looked in his element, his taller body moving easily and learned around Sylvia's smaller one. Junhui felt his heartbeat thudding in his veins and his breath which was slightly heavier; he was suddenly very cold and uncomfortably damp from the rain. His skin felt tight and hot and transparent and Junhui was very careful not to look down. Despite everything, he could feel himself beginning to leak in his jeans. 

"Jun, it's starting to get dark, hey?" Joshua's voice seemed to take a long time to float up to his ears. Junhui realized that it was just his brain.

Suddenly, everything went wrong. The held-out animalistic scream of a wild animal radiated from the lungs of Sylvia...Sylvia who? What was her surname?

"BOY!" Junhui slid down the ladder like he had seen in films, the movement a accident rather than something decided. It was beyond fucking agony. When Junhui was on the ground, he bretahlessly stumbled with a yelp, his hands red and bleeding and cut and scraped. 

"YOU MOTHER-FUCKING CUNT OF A MAN!" The window above their heads open with a humongous crash, and Sylvia's thunderous face and lungs roared to the sky above. "SOD OFF!"

Joshua virtually dragged Junhui across the road and slammed the front door before locking it.

"He'll -!" Junhui spluttered out, the unbelieveable pain not fading at all, trying to talk about Minghao. It was killing him.

"Yeah, but that other woman's not getting the chance to come in here." Joshua breathed heavily. "What a fucking maniac -" His expression fell dead. "Oh fucking Christ, that ladder's laying across the fucking road, someone will have a car accident." He looked at Junhui. "This is all your fault, you go and get it before we get sued."

Junhui panted, looking down at his savaged hands. "I fucking can't!" He exclaimed. "Why are you so scared of a woman that's like four foot five? You get the fucking ladder, Josh!"

-

"How long you reckon he was there for?" Sylvia coughed barkingly into her fist, staring across the road to where two young men had just rushed into Minghao's house. 

"I - I'll explain everything later, Sylvie, I promise. Those two guys - I know them. Oh, Jesus Christ, I'm so sorry, I'll be back -" Minghao rushed out of the studio and down Sylvia's stairs.

"Where the fuck are going?!" Sylvia howled at him over the staircase railing at the second floor. "You're bollocks naked, you twat!"

"See you soon!" Minghao yelled just as he rushed out of front door. Immediately, he wished he hadn't. It was absolutely fucking freezing. Not worrying about covering himself up, he stared dismayfully at the ladder laying across the road outside Sylvia's house. He rushed over and picked it up just as a early-evening chauffer cab came down the street. Minghao raised a hand in greeting and some Anglo tourists looked agawp out the window at him and the cab driver's mouth fell open. Minghao realized he was still covered in paint. Oh...fucking hell.

Minghao ran across the road and up the front steps too his front door, shutting the front gate behind him, and hammered on his own front door upon finding it was locked. "YOU DICKHEADS, UNLOCK THE DOOR, I'M IN THE NUDDY HERE!" He shouted.

-

"Oh, God...." Joshua said after filling up a small tub of warm water mixed with dettol for Junhui's hands. They looked at each other, before looking towards the front of the house. They could hear Sylvia and Minghao yelling at each other and they were across the road.

"Whatever you do, don't make it worse." Junhui warned Joshua, wincing as blood from his hands turned the light amber water a much darker colour, the dettol biting into his raw, scraped skin.

"I'm not doing any fucking thing." Joshua laid down neatly. "This is all your fault, and I've already got bashed up today." He pointed at his face. 

Junhui blinked. "So I wasn't dreaming then." He said.

"What?" Joshua stared at him.

"I thought you looked a bit..." Junhui whistled lowly.

"YOU DICKHEADS, UNLOCK THE DOOR, I'M IN THE NUDDY HERE!" Minghao's shout echoed throughout the whole house even though he was outside. He furiously hammered on the front door.

"I'll kill you." Joshua warned, pointing at Junhui, before rushing up to the front door.

A sodden, skin-flushed, paint-covered, cold, and naked Minghao greeted Joshua. His wet mullet hair and his curtain fringe dripped down into his fringe, and, despite he was shivering, had his arms wrapped around himself, and his eyes were black with fury, exagerrated further by been outline with raw black paint plus streaks of white and dark red on his face and across his skin, he was breath-taking in the best possible way. "Joshua Hong..." Minghao said lowly. "If you lie to me about where Jun is I will tie you up and cut you into one centimeter pieces from your toes upwards, do you understand me?"

Joshua smiled brightly. He stepped out of Minghao's way and pointed down the hall. "All yours, Hao." He said pleasently toned, before going out of the front door and across the road to Sylvia's.

-

"Sylvia?" Joshua pushed open the un-locked front door and called out. Joshua heard the footsteps of the young woman before he saw her. His eyes widened.

Everyone knew Minghao did his nude modelling and body art modeling, but had it been a revelation when they found out two years ago that his boss was a woman. They had presumed Minghao's boss to be a man...simply because Minghao was a man. And the idea of a woman wanting to paint things on a naked man's body and photograph him...to them at the time, the concept had worked to their understanding of human nature within the world. It had created an absolute uproar. Everyone had wanted to meet this woman, know all about her, know what she looked like, did she have other models, what was she like -

Minghao had put a stop to all of it with one word. "Sylvia." It had taken the other guys some explaining from Joshua and Vernon that Sylvia was a girl's name in the Anglo and European worlds. It was the only detail Minghao had ever said about Sylvia. They knew nothing about her except her name. They knew where she worked, but everyone respected Minghao's intent on privacy even though they were dying to know. They got used to not knowing over time.

"Must be ugly." Jeonghan had once described the situation as. "Must be why he doesn't want us to meet her." Joshua had laughed back then, but, so ironically, Jeonghan couldn't be further from the truth, this diagnosis of Sylvia.

She was absolutely tiny with a hourglass but thin figure. She had her hair in a European 1960's style with a French fringe swept over to one side like a black flower petal. She was old-world but still an ulzzang beauty without most of the ulzzang essentials. To describe Sylvia's beauty was more like describing an Anglo woman than a Korean woman; Korean woman wanted to look like dolls, whereas Anglo women ahd mastered the art had attempting to look like themselves, but only in the form of a Deity. She was wearing a black silk dressing gown, and she had a cigarette dangling from her lips. They were chapped and at the moment...her upper lip was split open and bleeding, the skin having been peeled away by nervous fingertips. 

Joshua couldn't stop looking at her.

And she was so young.

"Go home." She told him. "Minghao doesn't want you to know me." Something about her dark eyes softened ever so slightly. "You're lovely, darling." She added on softly, a compliment to Joshua, or perhaps just her earnest diagnosis of him, before turning on her heel and walking back up the hallway of her Art-Deco style house. Joshua was left standing there, not sure what to do at all. Nothing at all.


	4. FOUR

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Junhui thinks too much as he helps scrub Sylvia's artwork off Minghao's body in the bath, Joshua affirms something in his belief of Sylvia, whilst Minghao insists that he doesn't know her at all

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to involve the whole band at some point in this work :) I've got Joshua and Jeonghan coming up, and then Soonyoung, Seokmin and Jihoon

Junhui couldn't hear the shower running. He didn't know if something was wrong or not. He knocked on the bathroom door. "Hao, are you in there?" He asked.

"I'm in the bath." Minghao said. Junhui didn't know whether to push on when Minghao added, "It takes a while to scrub all the paint off and I'd use twice as much water if I was in the shower. The hot water service is on it's last legs, I think." He paused. "Come in if you want but don't stare."

Junhui went in. The bath was just under half full, and Minghao was rubbing at his chest and shoulders with a flannel. Junhui blushed slightly, but, then, the room was hot and the heat lamps were mostly to blame. He sat down cross-legged on the mat beside the bath-tub. 

"Sylvie uses some sort of water - it's only likeness to water is that it's transparent - to get this stuff off. I'm trying soap at the moment." Minghao looked down at his pink skin and then to Junhui. Junhui glanced to the taps rather than Minghao's skin.

"Want me to run across and ask?" He quipped.

Minghao shooked his head. "No, she doesn't want you there."

"Ok." Junhui murmured. "Do you want me to do your back?" He offered to Minghao. As he reached to take the flannel off Minghao, Minghao stared at his hands before snatching one of his hands. The flanell dropped into the water and sank down onto Minghao's crotch.

"What have you done to yourself?" Minghao said quickly, looking at Junhui's wounded hands. 

"I came off the ladder when Sylvia started screaming." Junhui explained, and then described how he slid down the ladder, his feet missing all the rungs. 

"That's why it was lying across the road?" Minghao checked. Junhui nodded. 

"You need some sort of wrap over them and it can't get wet." Minghao said. 

"We're ok." Junhui insisted.

"No, you're not." Something flashed in Minghao's eyes.

"Shift around, I've got it." Junhui said. Minghao looked down into the water and brought the sopping wet flannel to the surface, he gave it to Junhui, some of the water dripping down onto the bath-mat. He moved to sit at an angle in the bath-tub, and Junhui's eyes went wide open. A oriental dragon was painted across Junhui's back along with images of children playing ball, but the ball was the globe, and they were wearing little changsans and qi paos made of the chinese flag; the red fabric with the yellow stars across the heart. Further up his back were the same little children at an event waving chinese flags in their chinese-flag dresses, and, down the bottom, looked like the children dead, having been hung by their necks, their bodies dangling from some sort of...

Junhui wiped the flanel across Minghao's skin. The dragon, the children, the chinese politics disappeared.

Minghao's head turned to the side, not to look at Junhui directly, but just to know that something in the aura around them had changed.

-

"What are you still doing here?"  
Joshua looked up. He was sitting in Sylvia's hallway, his legs stretched out in front of him and crossed at the ankle. He had been on his phone.

She was carrying a mug of tea in her hands. 

"I wanted to see if you were ok." Joshua said. "Junhui's done some stupid things over the years but that takes the cake."

Sylvia smiled faintly. She and Joshua were silent for a few moments. "I don't know who you are." Sylvia said softly, looking up from her mug of tea to Joshua. 

"I don't know who you are, either." Joshua said. "Just your name."

Sylvia smiled. 

"You do that a lot, don't you?" Joshua quipped up to her. She nodded. She asked why. "Just a hunch." Joshua said.

-

Minghao had just finished wrapping Junhui's injured hands before giving him a hefty slap over the head. "You'd better still be able to type when you go to work tomorrow." Minghao told Junhui.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know the deal." Junhui muttered. 

Joshua came back into the house without slamming the front door. He found them in the dining space adjoined to the kitchen and one of the entertaining rooms in the house.

"Where have you been?" Junhui said.

"Across the road." Minghao and Joshua both said at the same time.

"And?" Minghao and Jun said simultaneously.

"She's cute." Joshua answered, finding the coffee jar in the cupboard.

"Hah!" Minghao gave a single cackled scoff. Junhui and Joshua spun around to look at him. "You don't know her." Minghao said in a warning tone. Joshua put the kettle to boil. They got off the subject of Sylvia just as Minghao went back across the road to see her. It left Joshua feeling slightly nervous that Minghao and Sylvia would have a fight as he asked about him, and, then, just he and Junhui alone in the house together.

"So, what happened to you?" Junhui asked and added that could Joshua do him a coffee too.

Joshua wasn't exactly forth-coming. "I got into a fight with Jeonghan and Seungcheol." He said. "I need to stay here for a couple of days. Jeonghan is at Seokmin and Soonyoung's and Seungcheol is at our place."

"And your face...?" Junhui pushed. Joshua stirred the milk into Junhui's coffee and thought about just tipping it down the sink as his response.

"I got into a fight with Jeonghan and Seungcheol." He repeated. This time, it sunk into Junhui.

"Shit." Junhui said. Joshua brought the coffees over to the table, and sat down.

-

"I wish this didn't happen." Minghao said to Sylvia.

"Go home, it's alright." Sylvia beckoned Minghao to bend down, and she kissed his cheek. "I got a couple of photos. If you could come back tomorrow that would be good, but, if you can't, you can drop by or give me a text, you know how it is, love."

"I'm sorry." Minghao said. 

Sylvia looked up at him. Her eyes seemed to read words Minghao couldn't quite figure out. "I'm sorry, too." She hugged him.


	5. FIVE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeonghan talks with Joshua about the girl that got in the middle if it all - Tae-ri - and Minghao tells Seungcheol that Joshua and Jeonghan are in a sexual relationship as a joke, but a joke it is not taken as. Jeonghan convinces Joshua to come

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the film Bohemian Rhapsody there is a scene where Tami Malek - who plays Freddy Mercury - is singing a song called, "Love Of My Life". In the film it only goes for about 57 seconds, bit I adore the sound as I write :)

Yoon Jeonghan turned on his phone, and the first thing he did was call Joshua.

"Will you just call me?" Jeonghan asked, before hanging up on the message. 

Thirty minutes later, his phone buzzed with a phone call. It was Joshua. Jeonghan made himself wait to the fourth ring before he picked up. 

"Why did you even do it?" Joshua asked. "She was my girlfriend."

"Yeah, and -" Jeonghan tried to argue but Joshua cut him off.

"Yeah, and she consensually had sex with you but what was it with photos being put up on the internet?" Joshua snapped. "And....this is beyond messing around, Jeonghan."

-

"And I think that he's been afraid of changing because he's built his life around you." Sylvia said to Minghao, them sitting on the back steps of her house in the Gyreongsan mountains, the dusk freshly fallen over two of them. As Minghao's mouth creased downwardly and tears flowed down from his eyes, Sylvia kissed his cheek and then moved around as the river flower from Minghao's being, going back inside to do her ironing or whatever job needed to be done.

Minghao's eyes flew open, waking up from the dream.

Fucking hell. What had that being about?

Minghao's head tipped to the side, looking at Junhui. He was only in Junhui's bed in the spare bedroom - Minghao couldn't quite think of the spare bedroom as Junhui's bedroom yet - and Joshua was in Minghao's bed so he didn't have to sleep on the couch.

-

Jeonghan went around to Tae-ri's house. 

"Does he still love me?" Tae-ri was still curled up in her bed when Jeonghan found her. He lay down on her bed beside her. He remembered her body, and how warm her skin had been. Most guys remembered things about a girls body a world away from Jeonghan; what she looked like as he spread her open, the way her nipples perked up, that sort of thing. Jeonghan remembered the curve of Tae-ri's shoulders as she lay on her side when she slept, her hands tucked beneath her head, and how her nose with it's little shape scrunched up slightly on her round face when she went to grin. Yes, she did have a lovely set of tits and a great arse, but, most of all, Jeonghan remembered how her pale lips would stretch out in a grin, and when the grin fell away, the blood would be intense and red, flushing her mouth bright and warm. Jeonghan remembered kissing that mouth and not letting it go to certain places on his body. He remembered the stupid decision of where he had agreed to photograph parts of her naked body...her bare breasts with the belt of his jeans across them to cover the nipples, her flat stomach, the curve of her waist and hips and backside of when she lay on her side. Then, the one photo of her torso laying upon his. Joshua had known it was him to the birthmark on his chest and ribs. It had been bad enough for him that the male body in her pictures wasn't his...but knowing it was his best friends. No wonder Joshua had done an absolute bloody mental.

"I should never have screwed you." Tae-ri mumbled, her sleepless eyes stark and bitter on Jeonghan's face. He knew that Tae-ri understood that he knew she was lying, despite everything. Tae-ri didn't know that Jeonghan sometimes went with other men for fun, and Jeonghan remembered her moans and high at been roughly but carefully handed, battered up and bitten and hickied and pleasured in places that she would know what was what if she had known any better about Jeonghan's sexual history. He knew that she knew that he knew that she enjoyed it. She'd keep doing it with him, plus doing it with Joshua, if she could.

"No." Jeonghan replied. "And you should never have been with Joshua either because the only reason you and him happened in the first place was because we were getting too complicated. That's what we do. When things get too messed-up one of us breaks away and does something normal for a while. Find a girl, date her, try to love her."

Tae-ri looked at him. "I'm not a bad woman. An ugly woman. A stupid woman. A worthless woman."

"No." Jeonghan remarked. "You're a mistake."

"For you?" One of her eyebrows lifted slightly.

"Me and him." Jeonghan said.

Tae-ri buried her face in her pillows, and Jeonghan left her be to cry, and, then, fall in love with someone else, to then fall in love with someone else - new again - the week after that.

-

"Won't you just let me come around?" Jeonghan asked Joshua over the phone, not begging him. "Where are you right now?"

"No way, I'll see you when I decide, not you." Joshua told him. 

"Does that mean I come and get you when the tides high as always?" Jeonghan remarked silkily. He virtually heard Joshua's skin burn like a wildfire on the other end of the call line. 

"I don't want to see you." Joshua said. Sure you don't, Jeonghan thought, raising his eyes to the sky above. He was standing out on the footpath outside Tae-ri's townhouse in the inner city of Seoul. 

"Do you want to see Tae-ri, then?" Jeonghan quipped. Jeonghan looked back towards her door, in case Joshua said yes. Joshua took a long time to answer.

"I'm not interested in love, I just want sex." He eventually responded. Jeonghan looked back again to Tae-ri's door. He was sure she wouldn't mind that, either.

Jeonghan flicked up eyebrows up and down in a subconcious gesture. "Well, I'm sure Tae-ri won't mind."

"I don't want to have sex with someone that you've done." Joshua told him.

"Well, technically that's the other way around in our situation." Jeonghan said. He rubbed the back of his neck. It was going to start raining again soon. It seemed to be like the wettest Seoul week on this centuries record. "How about sex with me, then?"

Joshua went silent again for a long time on the phone. 

-

Choi Seungcheol rang Jeonghan's phone, wanting to apologise and ask him to come home, but there was no reply. He instead then rang Mingyu. He got an answer from him.

"Have you seen Jeonghan?" Seungcheol asked.

Minghao and Junhui looked at Mingyu and rolled their eyes. The eery silent sound of Joshua and Jeonghan having their very unusual sex or otherwise just been in each other's company was as obnoxious and as intrusive as if they could hear one or the other screaming for the other one to take him deeper. They were sitting downstairs in the sitting watching a film. "Yeah, but he's pre-occupied." Junhui talked into the phone which was by Mingyu's ear. Mingyu swatted at Junhui, but was obediant when Minghao took his phone off him. Junhui mouthed over Mingyu's shoulder that that wasn't fair.

"What do you mean? Why's there so many of you? Minghao?" Seungcheol tried to work out what was going on. "Where's Jeonghan?"

"Pretty free, but at the moment he's inside Joshua Hong." Minghao told Seungcheol simply. Minghao didn't lose it as Mingyu and Junhui just about pissed themselves laughing, and Seungcheol hung up on the other end of the phone line, that far too much for his nerves to handle.

-

"You're not staying here." Joshua told Jeonghan. They lay together fully clothed on Minghao's bed that Joshua had taken up as his for a few nights. The lights were turned off in the bedroom except for the lamp on Minghao's bedside table. The orange-tinted glow was warm, and earlier before when they had shifted around, the orange had cast eight versions of shadows of themselves across the parts of the room that the lamp-light reached. 

"I know." Jeonghan replied. They were close, but they didn't touch. Joshua was underneath the covers of Minghao's bed while Jeonghan lay on the top.

"Why did you even do it?" Joshua asked. He lay on his side, one of his hands under his face and head; his dark, large eyes were illuminated by half on one side. Jeonghan couldn't stop looking at them. He remembered too many things when things like this happened. Jeonghan briefly closed his eyes, trying to fix a feeling inside of him that honestly, he didn't want to fade at all. A shiver ran over his skin. He slipped beneath the covers with Joshua. They were close still, but didn't touch. 

"We're never going to get to a reason why any of this happened, so...let's just leave it, ok?" Jeonghan eventually answered. He lay on his side. 

"That's no excuse." Jeonghan thought that Joshua looked very, very tired even though Joshua seemed very, very awake. 

Jeonghan nodded. The covers rustled around them. "I know, Shua."

"So what do we do now?" Joshua asked. 

"Are you ready to come home or do you want to stay here with Hao and Jun a bit longer?" Jeonghan replied simply. 

"No, I can't keep being here." Joshua said. "Minghao needs his own bed, and he can't be right beside Junhui for all his nights, anyway. He needs his space. The house is big, but three people constantly is too much. It's not my house. I can't just stay here without contributing something."

"You could always -" Jeonghan started, but Joshua's mouth pressed thinly together. 

"Shut up, Han, I don't want to hear it." Joshua rolled onto his other side. He sighed. 

"Sure, you don't." Jeonghan looked at Joshua's hair. With the light on it, it was varying shades of dark as it contrasted between the light and the dark.

"...Yeah. I'm not ignoring you, I just need to lay on my other side." Joshua rolled onto his back after a couple of minutes. He and Jeonghan looked at each other.

"Hm?" Jeonghan reached over beneath the covers and touched Joshua's hip. Joshua shifted. Jeonghan took his hand away. 

"I'll come home. One condition." Joshua said. 

"Here we go." Jeonghan smiled slightly, his eyes going to half-lids and looking knowingly at Joshua. 

"No, seriously." A slight reproach came into Joshua's features. 

"Ok." Jeonghan said. 

"You don't screw any of my girlfriends just because you're been an arsehole and you just happen to look like something that girls want to get with." Joshua put down concretely. 

Jeonghan looked at Joshua, and one side of his mouth move upwards. "Bitch." He said softly. Joshua nearly smiled. Nearly.


	6. SIX

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeonghan sees Junhui looking at photos of Minghao on Sylvia's gallery website, and all hell breaks loose when the heart-conditioned account Jihoon has a heart-attack. But, you see, Soonyoung and Seokmin were the ones who bribed Lucifers doormen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this is rather fun, if slightly foul-mouthed, as we come to Soonyoung, Seokmin and Jihoon's piece :)

"Three, two, one..." The flash went off on Sylvia's camera, breathing illuminating the koi fish and the underwater-scape she had drawn over Minghao's abdomen, hips, stomach and ribs. "How's everyone going?"

Minghao groaned. "I don't want to talk about that." 

"Ok." Sylvia looked over at Minghao's chest. "Could I draw the moon on one of your nipples?"

They laughed. "No, seriously, can I?" Sylvia asked, thumbing the flesh of her skin just above her upper lip. 

"For a second I thought you were going to ask if you could do it on one of my testicals." Minghao said. Sylvia screwed her face up.

"Oh, man, that's disgusting." Sylvia shook her head. "I'm not getting my hands down there, fuck off." She stood up. "Let's get you cleaned up and then I'll do the one on your hips."

"What are you going to put there this time?"

"Ivy."

"Ok." 

Sylvia looked over Minghao's body. He was used to her doing this; he no longer shyed away or blushed. His body was her canvas, a body as though her own to use and re-create.

That was his job.

"I've got another idea." She said softly.

-

Junhui looked over the top of his laptop where he was typing another series of adverts to go into the back of the magazine he worked for to where Minghao was lying on the carpet with a black over him, apparently asleep but not quite. There had been something playing on the television, and in a rare gesture, Minghao had shifted onto the floor so Junhui could spread himself out on the couch along with his notebooks and the drafts from the office. "Is it just me or do the days seem to go by really quickly now?" He found himself saying all of a sudden. 

Minghao didn't really contribute an answer other than a hum. Junhui looked at the way Minghao's waist went to his sharp, thin hips beneath his trousers and shirt.

"How was work?" Junhui asked.

"Good." Minghao answered. "She did work with markers today and I couldn't stop wriggling. I'd forgotten how they felt when they're drawing and writing on you."

"Writing?" Junhui saved the document he had been typing, and gave his full attention to Minghao. 

"Sylvie tried something different, that's all." Minghao didn't go into it with Junhui. Junhui deflated slightly. It was ok. It was ok. 

Junhui reflected on what would happen if Minghao knew that he had spend a good two months trying to find Sylvia's social media and her gallery website, and then eventually had, and sometimes looked at it if he had an idea that he knew she was doing certain things. Junhui flicked through the new releases section of Sylvia's website.

One photograph showed words written in English but translated into Korean in the text box - an explanation for the not-so-artistic and close-minded - below. The English words were written across Minghao's throat and neck, beginning at the front just above his adam's apple and curved around to the crook of is neck. The spidery written words were, "I'M NOT JUST A FUCK-UP, I'M THE FUCK-UP YOU LOVE". This photograph was in monochrome, and in the rectangluar photo, it showed a close-up of Minghao with his chin lifted up slightly and his head tilted to the side. One of his hands came over his collarbones and his mullet hair with the curtain fringe seemed wet, as though he had just emerged from a lake but was drying out in the sunlight. There was a second close-up, a tight version, showing just Minghao's neck where the first showed from just above a section of his collarbones to just above his eyes.

Junhui scrolled for ages through the site until he found some of Sylvia's early work, where she did a series of drawing little comical sketches on the back of Minghao's ankles and the undersides of his wrist.

One of his favourite photos was a disney-style drawn police-man on Minghao's right ankle with doves and stars and love hearts floating around his head in a circle looking lovingly at a cat-woman winking and waving dominatrix hand-cuffs at him on Minghao's left ankle.

Another one that Junhui liked was a person giving the fingerwhilst waving a parking ticket in the air. on Minghao's right ankle to a parking warden officer with a big nose and a traffic helmet on Minghao's left ankle.

"What are you smiling about?" Minghao quipped to Junhui. Junhui looked across the top of his laptop to Minghao who was lying on his back with one his arms thrown above his head and the other by his side with his hand on his flat stomach. Minghao's shirt rose up slightly showing a section of his hip, and Junhui felt himself momentarily lost. The image of seeing Minghao naked in Sylvia's studio and seeing him naked in the bath-tub rushed back to Junhui. 

Junhui was svaed by answering by Joshua and Junhui coming down the stairs, Jeonghan somewhat chilvarily carrying Joshua's case.

"We're going back home, guys." Joshua said. He smiled at Minghao and Junhui and came over to say goodbye to them. Junhui looked at Joshua crouching down beside Minghao on the floor and their head coming closer together as they talked; he didn't notice Jeonghan's come up behind him, and, in doing so, seeing the images that Junhui had uploaded on his laptop. 

Jeonghan hummed softly in Junhui's ear, and Junhui started. He twisted around to look at Junhui. "I know you moved in to get closer, and that you lost Hao that time when he wasn't sober when we were in that place last summer and everyone knew it wasn't going to be forever." Jeonghan pulled lightly at Junhui's ear-lobe before collecting up Joshua's case, and they left in Jeonghan's car. 

-

"I reckon he was masturbating a bit." Soonyoung sniffed Jeonghan's sheets before stuffing them with the end of a sweeping-broom into the washing machine.

Seokmin burst out laughing. "Yuck." Seokmin eventually hiccuped. Soonyoung looked around and got Seokmin by his shoulder before rubbing his breath.

"Hold your breath and I'll shake you upside down." Soonyoung told Seokmin. Seokmin's hiccuping got worse as he laughed even more. 

Soonyoung's phone started ringing in the sitting room. Seokmin went out and got it.

"Hey - hic! - who is it?" He answered the call.

"It's Jihoon, get that pain in the arse for me." Jihoon said. 

"Oh, hey - hic!" Seokmin winced and rubbed his chest.

"Are you drunk?" Jihoon asked.

"No, Soonyoung started me laughing about Jeonghan fisting himself -" Seokmin chuckled.

"Ok, that's enough of that." Jihoon said. 

"You know, you should have a car - hic! - career change." Seokmin told Jihoon. "Stop being an accountant, be a dominatrix instead."

"Fuck off." Jihoon said. Seokmin grinned.

"I know you're smiling." Seokmin could hear the change in Jihoon's tone. He knew Jihoon would probably be pacing up and down the hallway of his apartment a few blocks away. It was his habit whenever he rang their house.

"Shut up, get me the idiot." Jihoon said.

"I heard how warm your tone got at "idiot"." Seokmin quipped. Jihoon promptly declared him a lost cause.

Seokmin went back to the laundry. "It's Hoonie." He told Soonyoung. 

Seokmin was barely out of the laundry door when Soonyoung operatically sung, "LOVE OF MY LIFE!" down the line to poor Jihoon on the end of it. He nearly collapsed down to his knees. He pressed a hand to the hallway wall for balance as his other arm around around himself.

"Do the whole song!" Seokmin said. "It's Queen, isn't it?"

Seokmin reflected that it was pretty much lovely as he went around the kitchen and cleared up the dishes, hearing Soonyoung sing down the line to Jihoon.

"Love of my life, you've hurt me....you've broken my heart and now you leave me. Love of my life, can't you see...bring it back, bring it back...bring it back, bring it back..."

Don't take it away from me..." Seokmin sung softly along to Soonyoung singing to Jihoon down the phone line. 

"SEOKMIN!" Soonyoung suddenly screamed. Soonyoung ran like hell out into the kitchen, his skin white. He stuttered helplessly until Seokmin hit him around the face with a rolled-up tea-towel. 

"What's happened?" Seokmin said to Soonyoung.

"Hoonie's having a heart-attack!" Soonyoung exclaimed.

Both of them went silent for a moment, Seokmin looking at Soonyoung who was breathless and his skin blotched red over the paler patches, Soonyoung holding his phone in one hand with Jihoon still connected on the other hand.

Jihoon had a heart-condition, which was why all their group of friends he had picked the most boring career of them all: accounting.

Seokmin and Soonyoung screamed at each other.

-

"IN THE CAR, IN THE FUCKING CAR!" Soonyoung just about shrieked, rushing out of the front door in his jeans and a pyjama shirt, his jacket shrugged on loosely around him; it was now falling off around his elbows, and Seokmin was still held up inside grabbing his phone, the charger, his shoes and -

"WHERE'S THE KEYS?!" Seokmin hollered. 

Soonyoung raced back inside. "IT'S YOUR FUCKING CAR, YOU RETARD!" Soonyoung answered, exaggerating his hands. Seokmin found his car-keys by the kitchen sink in the old coffee jar, and they went back outside. 

Both of the young men stopped screaming at each other for long enough to look at each other over the soft-top roof of Seokmin's scarlet BMW mini cooper. "Sorry, mate." Soonyoung said. 

The passenger and driver doors on the BMW slammed shut.

-

Jihoon lay very, very still on his couch with his hand over his chest, breathing as well as he could. He had told Soonyoung not to call any doctors or an ambulance, but, knowing Soonyoung, Soonyoung had probably ordered everyone from the fillipino cleaning lady of the rich old couple next door to the British RAF. He wasn't having a heart-attack, but he was very sick. He had been tense all day, and he had tried to not be. He had called them up for a reason; Soonyoung's tax returns had been a apalling mess. His boss was an idiot, the superannuation had never been properly declared, and Soonyoung had no idea that he was being under-paid. All of a sudden, something had clicked over inside his chest. At first, he hadn't felt anything at all. Then, it had started. 

Sure enough, what seemed like a huge time to Jihoon - so long that he thought all the bullshit to proceed would not happen - intense and fast hammering sounded on his front door.

Oh, God, please, don't let those dicks break the fucking thing, I'll never get anyone to fix it if it happens...Jihoon thought to himself. He couldn't speak, and he hoped they got the idea to try the back door. 

"IDIOT SCALLYWAGS!" The sound of a gun-shot went off outside. Jihoon closed his eyes as a horrific pain that choked him completely flooded his chest.

Seems like Seokmin and Soonyoung had met M. and Mrs Walter Huayra.

Oh, shit.

-

Soonyoung grabbed Seokmin and pushed him deep into Jihoon's carefully attended front garden which consisted of two towering elm trees and some perinium hedging and some daffodils. Most of the garden was original, having been owned by a interracial merchant family back before the second world war. Jihoon now had his house as his accountant offices as well as a residence. 

"Oh, great, this is the day we're in a terroist attack." Seokmin snarled quietly. 

"FOOLISH YOUNG MEN THIS CENTURY - HA!" Both Seokmin and Soonyoung looked around the thick trunk of the century old Elm tree to see a old man in a red dressing gown with a hunting rifle leaning out of a window...fixing telescopic sights to his weapon.

Seokmin and Soonyoung looked at each other.

"How about this is the day that some psychotic old cunt escaped a nursing home?" Seokmin suggested. 

-

Jihoon closed his eyes and braced himself on the arm of his couch; it wasn't his private one, it was in the waiting room adjoined to the study where he saw his clients. It was an antique European made one, and it was upholstered with red fabric embroidered with gold thread and polished oak body and legs. It was comfortable, but not overly so. Jihoon was grateful for the rigidness as he tried to get his feet. As he tried to stand, his legs were too weak. They went out from beneath him and everything became a hundred times worse as he crashed to the ground. The impact made him feel very, very sick, and he was in a lot of pain. 

The gunshots hadn't helped.

Because it meant that all hell had broken loose, and those two idiots - Seokmin and Soonyoung - would shit themselves and have no idea how to handle it. Jihoon wanted to be able to get to his feet and tell Walter to stop, but he couldn't move.

Jihoon went unconcious. 

-

"IN THE HOUSE, IN THE HOUSE -" Seokmin howled at Soonyoung before slamming the door shut behind him. Seokmin squarely gave the bird to the old men who had the gun aimed at him, but wasn't doing anything. Seokmin let well and truly rip. "GET FUCKED, YOU PSYCHO OLD CUNT! JIHOON'S HAVING A HEART-ATTACK AND YOU'RE TRYING TO KILL US! FUCK OFF!"

The old man lowered the gun. 

"You're not thieves?" He called less violently.

At that moment, Seokmin was on a tight-rope, and he had just tipped over the edge.

"GO AND GET FUCKED YOU PSYCHOTIC OLD -!"

-

"GO AND GET FUCKED YOU PSYCHOTIC OLD -!"

"Jihoon? Jihoon?" Soonyoung patted Jihoon's hand like he had seen people in films do, trying to get him to wake up. Jihoon's eyelids barely fluttered and he looked absolutely fucking terrible. "Seokmin, stop having a fight for five fucking minutes, please..." Soonyoung murmured under his breath. Suddenly, Jihoon made a heavy sound, but it was distinguisable as a word.

"Seokmin?" He said.

"Hoonie, thank God, please, just let me call you a Doctor or something, come here, I'm so fucking worried, Jesus fucking Christ...!" Soonyoung laid down on his side on the rug on the hardwood floors beside Jihoon, knowing that even though Jihoon was extremely sick shifting him around and holding him at all would make his blood pressure go through the roo, except, this time, he'd be too poorly to scald Soonyoung.

"I...can't breathe." Jihoon whispered just as blood began to trickle out of his nose and his vision swam.

Soonyoung called for an ambulance.


	7. SEVEN

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vernon, Seungkwan, Soonyoung and Seokmin visit Jihoon in hospital while Soonyoung wonders if it was hos singing that caused Jihoon's heart-attack. 
> 
> Jihoon has some hilarious side effects due to his heart medication, Jeonghan and Joshua have some input on that situation, Wonwoo won't talk to Mingyu, and heart-breaking events occur in Minghao and Sylvia's relationship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The matter of the erection caused by increased blood flow - it's true! It sounds insane, but it's true. Another matter that is true - people on heart medication can't consume grapefruit or any sustenance with grapefruit in it

"So how did you get the lump on your head then?" Seungkwan asked Seokmin.

"The old guy with the gun hit me with the butt of it." Seokmin admitted, holding a ice-pack wrapped up in a tea-towel from the nurses station on his head. He, Seungkwan, Soonyoung and Vernon were sitting by Jihoon's bed. Jihoon was connected up to a heart moniter and a IV drip, the mask of a oxi-tank covering his mouth and nose. Jihoon hadn't had a proper heart-attack; it was six little ones that pent up enough force to really take it out of him. All of them were aware of a set of rules Jihoon had put in place: Don't call his parents unless it was life threatening, send a automatic email to all his clients saying his services were not avaible at the moment, for God's sake, do resuscitate him, but if he ended up disabled in some way, put a pillow over his face. 

Jihoon was now sleeping. Soonyoung had taken a photograph and had sent it around to everyone. They weren't all supposed to be there, and not near dinner time anyway, but the matron had taken pity on them, and, they had been perfectly silent, not causing any disruptions of any form.

Half an hour later, Vernon said about he and Seungkwan packing up and leaving. Vernon moved towards Jihoon's bed and patted his head, telling him about some new British rock-band albums he'd like when he could come home, and they all smiled a bit when Seungkwan quickly pecked Jihoon's cheek and said very quietly, "Yeah, yeah, I know I'm a big soft gay, but don't worry, I haven't got my lipstick on today, you're clean."

As Seungkwan moved away and Vernon put an arm around his shoulders, Seokmin stared at Jihoon. He could have sworn Jihoon looked at them for a second.

"Queen." Vernon butted Seungkwan affectionately. Soonyoung looked to Seokmin. Seungkwan and Vernon had suddenly left quite a void between the two of them in the hospital room. 

"Which one stays and which one goes home?" He quipped.

Seokmin moved his thumb over the underside of Jihoon's wrist, thinking about how lucky it was that Jihoon's stupid neighbour hadn't...Seokmin wanted to ask Jihoon about that, but, he didn't know if Jihoon was aware of his neighbours. Seokmin didn't think Jihoon knew them. And some nuerotic old cunt waving a rifle about with telelscopic sights fixed to it, Seokmin thought that really would give Jihoon a proper heart-attack. He glanced over to Jihoon in the hospital bed, watching his chest rise and fall. Seokmin hoped that it didn't stop doing that anytime soon. "I don't think I could sleep."

"It's better than here. I'll stay and then we'll swap in the morning." Soonyoung offered.

"I don't want to leave him by himself." Seokmin said. Jihoon's heart moniter beeped on gently. He wondered if Jihoon wanted to roll over onto his side; he had been on his back for hours. He'd be uncomfortable by now, wouldn't he?

"Me neither." Soonyoung admitted. Seokmin got up from his chair and went over to Jihoon's hospital bed. He sat down on the side of it and held one of Jihoon's hands. Jihoon's hands were small but they were strong. His hand was limp in Seokmin's because he was asleep, but to Seokmin, it just felt like that Jihoon's wasn't really there at all. 

"You don't think I caused that heartattack do you?" Soonyoung asked. 

"What do you mean?" Seokmin said. 

"Singing to him?" Soonyoung shiftly awkwardly.

Seokmin chuckled softly. "Imagine the state of power you'd have if you could do something like that."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, Hoshi." Seokmi used Soonyoung's nickname. Behind Seokmin, neither he or Soonyoung saw Jihoon blink sleepily, and smile a little bit before going back to sleep.

-

"Oh, fucking hell, Hoonie, what if one of the nurses comes in - oh, Jesus Christ..." Soonyoung looked open-mouthed at Jihoon the next morning. Seokmin was trying not to laugh.

Jihoon's bed looked like a tent.

"It's a side effect of the medication." Jihoon shifted the oxygen mask off his face and switched to the cords to went to his nose and wrapped over his ears. "Renewed blood flow."

"I didn't know blood pressure tablets causes that." Seokmin managed to get out half-supportfully before he and Soonyoung well and truly nearly pissed themselves laughing. Jihoon blushed a little bit. He pushed a button on the hospital bed and made it recline upwards. Soonyoung and Seokmin laughed even more as Jihoon tried to cross his legs.

"And there's proof that it's the pills because if I were to have sex if wouldn't go down." Jihoon said.

"You sure about that?" Soonyoung teased.

"Yeah, Hoonie, are you sure?" Seokmin grinned widely. "Or maybe we should just give Jeonghan-hyung a call?"

Jihoon flipped them the bird.

-

Mingyu watched his house-mate and friend Jeon Wonwoo play the piano composition to the beginning of a song he recognised but couldn't name on the C.Berzsteihn piano in what had been the yoga studio of the hippy-dippy couple who had owned the house before they did. Wonwoo wasn't aware he was there, but Mingyu didn't mean any harm. Wonwoo played for how many minutes, Mingyu didn't know.

"Are you worried about Jihoon?" Mingyu asked when Wonwoo slowed down the piece he had been playing and playing a song that he had done for Seokmin's sister's wedding when the band she and her husband had hired had gotten their car bogged due to trying to take a short-cut through a field, the wedding having been held at a mountain-scape winery.

"He won't die." Wonwoo said quietly after a while. "Soonyoung and Seokmin wouldn't let him leave."

Mingyu left Wonwoo be.

-

"So he had a heart-attack due to a Queen song?" Sylvia smiled very, very gently.

Minghao still stook by his resolution of not involving Sylvia in any of his private life, but he had caused that situation himself. When he ahd seen the photograph of Jihoon in the hospital bed and a huge text about a doddery old neighbour with a rifle, Minghao had gone, "Fucking hell."

"Seems like it." Minghao turned around from her and put his phone on the charge by the telelvision on its cabinet in the sitting room of her actual home.

They hadn't started work yet, not quite.

"He'll be ok, love." Sylvia said. "They always are."

That day, she was wearing a dark purple 60's-style mini-dress with a tan-leather belt and kaftan sleeves with a crew-cut neck. She had on her black nylon tights and her hair was like it was most days. Down and softly marcel-waved with her french-leaf fringe and the purple headband giving it out of the way.

"I've been wanting to do more of the words-on-skin venture." Sylvia said to Minghao. "What do you think about that?"

Minghao shrugged. "Sylvie, you know I'm the coat-hanger." One half of his mouth lifted in a smile.

"Coathangers don't breathe and coathangers don't have their boyfriends up on ladders looking at them through windows." Sylvia's eyes twinkled in a way that only the eyes of British women did; Sylvia candidly remarked that she was more British than Korean. Colour of the Midlands, she once described herself. Black hair like a black mountains, skin the same shade as the elm trees that grow down to the lakes that are deep like my eyes. I'm not Korean. I'm a human being. You ever notice how things in this country work? No wonder my parents left.

Minghao froze. "Junhui's not my boyfriend." He said in a way he regretted later. It was to harsh. Sylvia didn't blink. 

"Are you sure?"

"No, I don't want him like that."

"Boy, I was raised with the oldest indigenous in the world." Her eyes gazed intently on him. "Don't fuck with me." Her head tilted slightly to the side. "You never forget it." She said softly. "The only slope in one of the most naturalistic places on Earth. Two groups: The native and the invaders." She stepped closer to Minghao. "Where I lived in Cheshire, a couple of guys were harrassing me, and one of the native men came along and ripped one of the Anglo's throat out with his teeth." Something haunting and ferally animalistic and violent came into his eyes. "You know me by now, don't you? Filthy cunt liars like you...makes me want to run back for the native that..." She trailed off. "I've always known you're on of them." Her eyes went up and down his body. "I can't believe I had a bible-basher in my fucking house..."

Like a ghost, she turned on her heel and left Minghao in the studio.

This is why you will never get involved with all of this, Minghao said to everyone within his head. Seungcheol, Jeonghan, Joshua, Junhui, Soonyoung, Wonwoo, Jihoon, Seokmin, Mingyu, Seungkwan, Vernon, Dino. You...couldn't.

-

Minghao searched through Sylvia's house until he found her high up in the old hawthorn tree that grew in her back garden. He climbed up and sat beside her in it's thick limbs. 

Sylvia's Mother left she and her Father to run off with some Russian bloke she met in Birmingham. Sylvia and her abandoned Father moved to Cheshire and lived in a delapidated little house next door to a forest miles out from the nearest village. It had been cheap, that Edwardian cottage ruin. There neighbours were Indigenous Cymry, and, after a horror three years in a local English-run school, Sylvia's Father took her out of it. Each morning, he'd wrap her up in her jumpers and one of dresses, and she'd go off with the area's Druid, one order of the native religious and cultural hierarchy in the native race. She From the age of eight she grew up amongst the native children and was home-school with the native children by the Bards, Druids and Ovates and some things by her Father.

The Druid sort of moved in with them. He slept in a barn out the back, and helped Sylvia's Dad with everything. 

The irony was, Sylvia wasn't the girl she might have once been. She was intelligent and wordly and naturalistic, but she was vicious, violent, foul-mouthed, bitter, dark, and haunting to the point she would snap every six months. Minghao sometimes wondered if she had a bit of post traumatic stress that only the native people she had grown up with new how to keep a lid on it. 

It had been about six months since she had last exploded, anyhow.

About time she went off again. 

-

"Try slamming it in a door!" Jeonghan shouted advice down the line of Seokmin's phone to Jihoon still in the hospital with his huge erection due to his heart tablets. "Or a cold bath!"

Joshua was nearly beside himself with hysterical laughter while Seungcheol was having a very hard time been a functioning human being.

-

Minghao quietly thought it had been a miracle that Sylvia hadn't taken her claws to Joshua and had ripped his face apart when she had had the oppotunity to be able to beat up a christened bible-basher.

He knew he shouldn't be doing this.

He carried Sylvia's medicately sedated body through to her bedroom and laid down beside her on her bed. She was out of it, and Minghao felt vile and sick inside.

The last time Sylvia had exploded she had lost the one person that was probably the love of her life.

Sylvia would never get over him. All the time she would be doing something and next thing she would snarl under her breath, "Cunt!", her exorcism for all that grief.

"I know it's all my fault." She had told him candidly and sadly one day. "No God will forgive me for doing that."

Minghao smoothed some of Sylvia's hair back from her face. He couldn't tell anyone this. 

He hadn't slipped the pill into her tea. Once he had managed to get her to come down from the Hawthorn tree, she had sat cross-legged on her kitchen table while he had made her a drink. She had been shivering and was absolutely silent, her eyes back on the Welsh/English border where she spent all her life. Sylvia had barely had a few sips of it, but Sylvia was surely susceptible to the tablets nonetheless, with her being in such a weakened state. Her unconciousness wasn't as truly medicated as it would have been had she had all the tea. Her body was exhausted, her mind was exhausted.

Minghao's eyes grew a bit wet, out of pure bitterness. She had no one. She had no friends, and, after the only person Minghao thought she had ever really loved left...he had taken so much of her with him as he had walked out of her front door. 

"What are you doing here, Sylvie?" Minghao touched her cheekbone. "You need to go home, darlin'."

Tears slid down Sylvia's cheek.

Minghao knew he would forever remember that image.

The girl crying in her sleep.


	8. EIGHT

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Due to his sadness over Sylvia, Minghao takes it out on Junhui who calls in Mingyu for back up. Minghao refuses to talk to either Junhui or Mingyu about what is going on. Junhui visits a unknowingly very, very ill Sylvia.
> 
> Seungcheol can't work out Jeonghan and Joshua's relationship and due to it is struggling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It will be revealed later in the book, but I just want to say that when Sylvia says, "Will started dying, it's fine..." She's referring to the person Minghao describes as the love of her life

"Hao?" Junhui went upstairs and found Minghao in his bedroom. It was night-time now and pitch-black outside. Inside the house was horrible. Minghao was in a black shirt and his skinny black jeans. One of of the first things Junhui noticed was that Minghao had scrapes across his hands, wrists, forearms, and his neck. Minghao was obviously in a very vicious mood. Junhui would have left him be, but Minghao was absolutely blaring music, some British song that Junhui didn't know.

"What do you want?" Minghao was carrying what looked like a vase with a lid on it. It was deep black veined marble. It was undoubtly very precious and very, very valuable. Junhui didn't realize it was a urn.

"What's wrong?" He asked, feeling hurt.

Minghao's dark eyes locked feriocusly on his. "Fuck off, Junhui." Minghao told him. 

"What?" Junhui echoed.

Minghao glared around viciously at him. He put the vase-like object very gently down onto his bed.

"Don't you talk like that to me." Junhui said. He went over and grabbed Minghao's arm, but Minghao smacked him across the face.

"Fuck off, Jun." Minghao snarled.

Junhui went outside. He turned on his phone. "Mingyu, come and control you're bitch of a girlfriend." Junhui said simply. "She's on her period or something." He swore viciously, and dived out of the way. A foot away from him, a vase had smashed to the ground.

"Son of a sub-human cunt bitch!" Minghao roared, looking out of the window above, his hands clutching the windowsill tightly and angrily before slamming the windows shut so hard that the glass rattled worringly.Junhui looked down to the ground beside him; he crouched down and inspected the shattered pieces of vase. The vase had been made from a thick kiln-fired ceramic, so ti hadn't shattered into so-many-million pieces. The vase had had a painting of bumblees and a little red balloon and oak trees across it. A larger broken piece showed a dark-skinned man with long black hair sitting beside a Asian man with a little girl between the two of them and a little dog. On the bottom of the vase was a name written in English: SYLVIA.

Junhui couldn't read it properly, or even understand the vase itself, but he thought that funny woman across the road might. Junhui looked upwards, to see if Minghao was glowering down at him. Minghao wasn't. Junhui gathered up all that he could find of the vase and wrapped it in his denim jacket and walked across the road. He hid within Sylvia - Sylvia what? What was her surname? Junhui desperately wanted to know her surname - side gate path in the darkness.

He only shifted around when Mingyu climbed out out of his car and jogged up the front steps to Minghao's front door and raggedly knocked on it. As soon as Minghao opened, Mingyu pushed his way inside, and he and Minghao were having a fight. 

Junhui knocked on Sylvia - God, not knowing her last name was giving him the shits! - front door and he waited. His eyes widened as she answered the door. The sound of "Unchained Melody" by The Righteous Brothers was the first thing to hit his sense alongside the image of Sylvia in a white silk empire-waist nightie with no sleeves, her black hair around her shoulder with her french-leaf fringe spread out all over her forehead. Her black eye make-up was smudged around her eyes like a panda and she had a burning cigarette in her mouth.

"I've got what I think is a vase of yours." Junhui opened up his jacket and showed her. She looked at it carefully, but there was something too fluid in her movements. She wasn't well; her skin was sickly white in colour, and there was sudden a hot flush on her skin which seemed to be tight and unbearable hot. Vicious eyes looked at his for a second, before all the viciousness disappeared, and, for Junhui, it was like looking down into the dark depth of a well.

Her cigarette now held between her index and middle fingers, Sylvia's hands flew to her mouth as she burst into tears, and she slammed the door shut in his face.

-

"I'M NOT TELLING YOU SO WILL YOU JUST FUCKING LEAVE, MINGYU!" Minghao howled at Mingyu. Mingyu blinked before grabbing Minghao by his throat and shoving him up against a wall. Mingyu's mouth and nose were bleeding from where Minghao had also smacked him like he had Junhui. 

"ENOUGH, MINGHAO!" Mingyu slammed Minghao's body and head by his neck against the wall. Minghao made a strangled sound, and Mingyu squeezed his throat tighter to shut him up before letting him slide to the ground before kicking him in the chest and punching Minghao for once in the face. 

"Why not tell me instead of treating me and Junhui like shit?" Mingyu snarled down at Minghao.

"I'm not telling you." Minghao looked up at him, face bloody and pale with blotched red patches and grey. His eyes were angry and hurt and wet and ferocious, and he was breathed heavily, wheezedly. He was in pain from where Mingyu had hit him.

"Why not?" Mingyu demanded.

"I...I can't tell you." Mingyu looked harder and with a renewed focus at Minghao as he choked up heavily-bloodied spit, unable to swallow it onto the white tiles. Mingyu sat down on the floor beside Minghao. Minghao's body was like a childs as Mingyu gathered him up into his arms. Defenceless, vulnerable, his skin was too hot, too hot. 

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Hao..." Mingyu held onto Minghao tightly as Minghao's wet and bloodied face pressed into the crook of his neck and shoulder. "You alright? Hao, say something. Say something."

"I can't tell you." Minghao whispered.

-

Junhui was let standing there on the doorstep for a few moments until he cautiously pushed at the door. It came open. Once inside, he was given his first look around the place that Minghao could nearly call home as well. It was old and...well, just old. It definitely wasn't Junhui's cup of tea. And Sylvia - or the owners before her - had gone to a lot of effort to make the house look like this. Why? It like being in someone's great-grandmother's house, but, like, in England or Germany or somewhere else.

Junhui saw the orange light coming from a room on the ground-floor, one of many in both sides of a very long, thin hallway. He pushed open the door. Sylvia was laying on her side on a Persian carpet in front of a Edwardian-hearth log fire. 

"You're not feeling too good, are you?" Junhui sat down cross-leggedly by her hips behind her on the floor. He touched her hip, wondering if she was awake and able to respond to him. The same cigarette smouldered away in her fingers. Junhui didn't know how to get it off her so it didn't start a fire or burn her.

"Will started dying, it's fine..." She whispered.

For all the hours Junhui went on to stay with Sylvia, that was the only thing she said.

-

"Cheol?"

Seungcheol stirred awake, and he wasn't exactly grateful for it. He was having a hell of a time getting to sleep and staying asleep lately.

"What?" He called out.

"It's Jeonghan. Why's the door locked? Come and open for it for me." Jeonghan's voice underlying asked for no arguement.

Seungcheol buried his head in the pillows. "What, why?"

"Cheollie..." Jeonghan's tone wheedled gently.

"Oh, Christ..." Seungcheol murmured under his breath. He got up from his lovely warm bed and un-hook the hinge by the door-handle for his bedroom. He had just climbed back into bed and Jeonghan tried the handle and was granted entry.

"Shouldn't you be in with Joshua?" Seungcheol said as the door clicked shut once more and climbed into the bed beside him.

Jeonghan looked at Seungcheol like he was the silliest man in the world. "Why would I be in bed with Shua?" He said softly.

He pressed his body up against Seungcheol's back beneath the covers and put a arm around him in the darkness.

-

"Vern? Are you awake?"   
Vernon opened his eyes as his bed dipped and Seungkwan's figure lay on top of the covers of his bed beside him.

"Yeah, mate, I'm awake." Vernon said. "You ok?" He turned over from being on his side and lay on his back. Seungkwan lay on his side. 

"Soonyoung just texted." He said. "They were walking with Jihoon and one of the hospital wardens out to the car-park - Jihoon's been released - and they swear blind they saw Junhui in the emergency ward with a girl in a white dress and a 60's hair-cut. She was been pushed along in a hospital bed - unconscious - and he was walking with her and saying to a doctor that he had no idea what her last name is."


	9. NINE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Junhui and Minghao catch up together with Sylvia in the hospital, and, unbeknownst to Minghao, a event had occurred that will change his life forever

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of the complaints or otherwise symptoms with ovarian cancer, especially in a young woman, is either intensely exaggerated, drawn-out menstruation cycles, or a complete reverse in that no natural hormone action continues within the diseased ovaries which create mood swings due to drops in endorphin, blood cell, and insulin levels. And, please, don't look this up on the internet. Ovarian cancer is a serious, serious condition, and this strain of cancer isn't just about it's symptoms pre-diagnosis

"WHY THE FUCK DID YOU INTERFERE IN MY LIFE LIKE THIS?!" Minghao howled over the phone at Junhui. "WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU GET THE IDEA THAT YOU CAN FUCK MY LIFE UP LIKE THIS?!" 

"HAO, SHE SPEWED PURE FUCKING BLOOD! OF COURSE I TOOK HER TO A HOSPITAL!" Junhui told him raggedly.

"YOU SHOULD HAVE GOT ME!" Minghao just about screamed.

"YOU TOLD ME I WAS THE SON OF A SUB-HUMAN BITCH!" Junhui retorted. "YOU REALLY THINK I'M GOING TO COME RUNNING TO YOU, YOU ARSHOLE?!"

Will a day go by when there isn't someone having a row? Mingyu thought, slumped almost drunkenly over a coffee in Minghao's kitchen.

-

"Why aren't you two talking to each other?" Sylvia asked Minghao softly, sweetly, rolling onto her side beneath the covers of the hospital bed. Minghao dived for her out of the chair he was in beside her bed on the right side beore Junhui could even think about it as he woke up from a fitful sleep.

"Hey, God, I was so worried about you, what's been going on?" Minghao tucked some of her hair behind her ear and kissed the top of her head. Her cheeks blushed a soft pink and her eyes slipped close and her nose scrunched up slightly as she smiled as happily and as innocently as a child, the child she never was. 

"I think I've made a mess of that bloody rug at home." Sylvia chuckled gently. "Ah, well, it was an old one that Dad found in Tottenham had a car-boot sale and sent over for me." She smiled.

Minghao looked across Sylvia's bed and her body speechlessly to Junhui. "They gave her a scan on her stomach - like they do with pregnant women, an ultrasound - and said it was something to do with enlarged ovaries. She has some condition when where her period comes around her body goes into a state of shock because it is suddenly hit with a higher level of waste hormone than it should be."

"That's why she threw up blood?" Minghao checked.

Junhui nodded. "Instead of coming out...normally." He managed awkwardly-toned. He spoke in Chinese. Minghao looked down to Sylvia, and wondered if she noticed, but she seemed to be off to sleep again. "It leeched back through her system and made her really, really sick. They've put seven types of medicine into her plus antibiotics, something else for her period, and then some other thing in the IV drip." Junhui pointed to the stand beside Sylvia's bed. "They reckon it's been going on for years and she just hasn't said anything."

"That's ridiculous." Minghao replied. "She'd know that's not right. How long did they say?"

Junhui shrugged. "Four or five years?"

Minghao face-palmed. "Say it was right then." He said.

"What?" Junhui looked at him.

Minghao didn't explain anything at all about it to Junhui. No way on Earth was he knowing about Sylvia's family, and, the people that became her family.

-

Unbeknowest to Minghao, when he left the room to go and get a drink, Junhui leant down, his elbows on his knees and his clasped hands hanging between them. He gazed at Sylvia, who was laying on her other side, now facing him. 

"You can tell him whenever you decide, love." Junhui said to her. She reached out a hand, and he held her hand in his. 

Junhui wondered how much harder - and how much more un-forgiving - things could be and Minghao would be when he found out that Sylvia had ovarian cancer.


	10. TEN

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jihoon is released from hospital, and he explains the situation of his elderly trigger happy neighbour Walter to Soonyoung. Wonwoo meets he and Mingyu's very handsome neighbour through a disaster with their washing line which as their underwear like flags on the neighbours TV aerial, and Seungcheol talks to Jihoon about abusive hospital staff and the situation of Jeonghan and Joshua

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After the sadness - and coming sadness - with Minghao and Sylvia, I've created a love interest for Wonwoo :) Tell me what you think; his appearance is sort of based on Harry Shum Jr.

"Get stuffed." Jihoon grinned at Seokmin as Soonyoung pushed him in the wheelchair through the supermarket. Seokmin had - discreetly, Jihoon would admit - just held a sweet potato at the front of his crotch and had waved it about for a joke. "You know what they get called in England?" He pointed at Seokmin's crotch.

"What?"

"Wedding vegetables."

"Oh, fucking God..." Seokmin and Soonyoung grinned at each other, and tried not to burst out laughing as they were in the middle of a supermarket.

"It's only for a few days." Soonyoung appealed to Jihoon as he frowned slightly at the wheelchair made a slight noise when Soonyoung took off the brakes and pushed him along while Seokmin pushed a shopping trolley. "The weekend at most, just until they can get you to see that cardiologist. You have no idea the price we had to pay to get you out early." Soonyoung ducked his head down. "Seokmin has to go out to dinner with one of the nurses."

"Yeah, and, besides, you can't be trusted to not get the urge to chase after something with a hammer and threaten to bash it in unless they grow up." Seokmin remarked, reaching over and getting the shopping list off Jihoon. "What's that?" He pointed to a word he didn't recognise. 

"That's just the brown bread. Name of the brand." Jihoon explained. "I have to eat rabbit food according to everyone in my life."

Last night in the hospital, they had got him to walk for a bit, and he had, but it hadn't had good effects afterwards. The nurses had had more decency than to humiliate Jihoon, a young man, with a stick or a walking frame. Both were inadequete, anyhow. The doctor that had been tending on Jihoon was suggesting that Jihoon might need some sort of surgery; a fuss had been made over him, mostly because he was so young, and in such a way of a old man. Old men were allowed to deterioate, not young men.

"All of you don't need to make such a fuss." Jihoon insisted as they got back to his home. Soonyoung carefully broached a subject he wanted to talk about as Jihoon got out of the wheelchair on his own and into one of his armchairs.

"Do you know your neighbours on that side?" Soonyoung asked.

"And if I didn't have a heart issue I'd have their guts." Jihoon pointed through the walls. "The man is Walter; he is a World War Two veteran. He was in Japan in the war but the reason he is here in South Korea was because he served here during the war in the 50's. He married one of the girls and stayed here. He's British, so he's a bit different even before he machine-gunned dead five hundred Japanese Imperial Army Soldiers at Nagasaki." He explained. "I heard the gunshots go off and him saying you and Seokmin were robbers."

"Is he a bit..." Soonyoung touched his temple.

"He's got parkinsons, dementia and alzheimas." Jihoon said. Soonyoung's jaw dropped open. "But, you see, he was still in Japan after the Americans dropped the atomic bombs. He stayed there for three years; he was in Hiroshima - exposed to all the radiation - when the ANZAC's - Australian and New Zealand troops - volounteered to help clean up the place after the bomb fell." Jihoon sighed. "The radiation had some sort of effect on him, I think. He's had parkinsons, alzheimas and dementia for seven years now; by now, anyone else would be in a nappy and couldn't remember their own name, but, Walter is still pretty good at everything. Taking into account he's ninety-seven as well. No one is too sharp by their ninety-seventh birthday." Jihoon shifted in the armchair. "I'm not using that thing again, I'm sorry, I'm just not." He pointed to the wheelchair. "Anyway, with Walter, I'm sure he's sorry now for what he's done, anyway. Don't go an report him to the police; it's no point. He's an old man. And, honestly, it is nice to know that if someone goes to rob me a world war two solider will shoot them before they can blink." Jihoon grinned.

"Ok." Soonyoung managed faintly.

-

The sound of the mustang owned by Wonwoo and Mingyu's neighbour, the engine purring gently as he turned into his driveway, filled up Wonwoo's ears as he got off the phone to his boss who was on holiday in the Carribean and had had his credit cards stolen. Wonwoo was a clerk for a media firm, a rival one to the firm that published the magazine that Junhui was a typist for. He was more a secretary as in point of position, but Wonwoo didn't think of it that way. It implied that he was a woman, and, it implied that he was in a sexual relationship with his middle-aged boss.

He definitely, definitely, definitely wasn't.

Wonwoo really hadn't had the chance to do any of that before.

Mainly because there hadn't been anyone he had met before that wanted that with him.

Wonwoo looked up from his laptop, set up with him in the armchair in the sitting room, it being the weekend now, as a knock sounded on his front door. 

He answered it. The man who owned the mustang - Wonwoo recognised him just enough, having never actually met the man before - was at the door, holding some clothes. "Are these yours?" He asked. "Sorry to bother you mate, but I think you've got an issue with your washing line."

"Oh, fucking hell..." Wonwoo felt his insides sink. He took the clothes off the neighbour and expected them. They were Mingyu's shirts. "I'm so sorry -"

"It's a bit worse than that." The man grinned sheepishly. He was good-natured, and his dark black-bear eyes were kind. He was about thirty-eight. "Want me to tell you, or do you want to have a look?"

Wonwoo and Mingyu's house was built on the side of a hill. The neighbours house sat roughly eight feet lower than where there house and back garden was. Wonwoo's hand came up to cover his mouth at the sight that met him.

A pair of black underpants - his - flew merrily like a flag from the next-door-neighbour's television aerial. 

"And I'm taking it that you don't have a ladder big enough to get it down?" The neighbour quipped.

"Oh, shit." Wonwoo said.

"You don't?" The man thumbed his chin before laughing. "Oh, jeez, sorry about that mate." He looked up to the undercrackers on the television aerial. "Well, this sucks." He grinned. "I'm Woosung."

"Wonwoo." They shook hands. Woosung's hands were huge and very warm, but not sweaty. His hair hadn't started greying yet in a short but combed back crop on his head, and he had a clean shaven face. He had a square face with modern Korean features, but he was still masculine looking, and not in a flower-boy way. He was the same height as Wonwoo, and he was strong; a boxer's body. He was wearing a suit with a pale blue shirt, and had good leather shoes. Wonwoo was bare-foot in his jeans and a dark green jumper and he had on his glasses.

"Do you know any other of the neighbours who might have a ladder?" Wonwoo asked. "Not that it matters, just a pair of pants, but it can't be up there on your aerial."

"Bloke beside me has a fishing rod." Woosung replied. He and Wonwoo burst out laughing. "We're going to fish undercrackers." Woosung decided cheerfully. As he walked across Wonwoo and Mingyu's front garden, then his, and then onto the neighbours on his side, Wonwoo followed behind him in a happy wake.

He liked Woosung.

-

"Hey, Ji." Seungcheol grinned at Jihoon. "Nice to see you, mate." He reached down and hugged Jihoon.

"Gave me a wheelchair, but I'm not using it, no way." Jihoon explained when Seungcheol sat down on his couch and gestured to it. "Soonyoung pushed me around in it at the supermarket this morning while Seokmin pushed the trolley; I nearly died of shame." Jihoon smiled a bit.

"You feeling okay?" Seungcheol asked.

Jihoon nodded. "The other day was rough. I forgot how intense it could be." He gestured to his chest. "Nurses were alright at the hospital, so they should be all the money they get paid."

"What?" Seungcheol frowned.

"I thought they'd carry on about Soonyoung and Seokmin been there, and, if they had, I would have put in a little remark how one of the nurses likes to slap around the old man with alzheimers in the room next door to mine and tells him he's a piece of shit." Jihoon's tone was unforgiving. "I know who it is. When I'm back on Monday someone's going to lose their job, anyway."

A silence developed between the two of them. "I'm having problems with Han and Josh." He said quickly and simply.

"What's going on?" Jihoon asked, moving onto the new subject as well.

"When we all had a fight and we all went off, right, Jeonghan went around to see Josh at Hao and Jun's. I rang up Mingyu to see what was going on, and he was at Hao and Jun's. Hao gets the phone of Mingyu and says that the reason why Jeonghan won't answer my calls was because he was upstairs - at Hao and Jun's house - having sex with Joshua." Seungcheol said.

Jihoon listened.

"But, then, we're all home now and it's all ok, but Josh and Han are acting like nothing has happened, nothing has ever gone on. Then, Jeonghan wanted to get in with me in bed last night - sorry, no, a couple of nights ago - and, if he was screwing around with Josh, wouldn't he either be, A. sleeping in his own bed, or, B. sleeping in Josh's bed with Josh?"

"You don't think Hao could have been having a joke when he said about Han and Josh fucking around?" Jihoon put to Seungcheol questionly.

"No." Seungcheol shook his head. "No, no, way, he wouldn't do that."

A voice murmured delicately in the back of Seungcheol's head, Yeah, but would he?


	11. ELEVEN

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vernon and his boss whom he works at a electrical company find out for Chan that his newly rented house has asbestos contamination, and Wonwoo's relationship with Woosung moves fast

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first time I've properly written Chan in, but, hey, finally! There will be more to come :) (and quite a few surprises)

"God art thou in heaven..." Woosung muttered as he stood on a small step-ladder - only a meter high - in his back garden and reached up towards his television aerial with the fishing rod.

"You're a Christian man?" Wonwoo asked.

"You must be fucking kidding..." Woosung grinned down at him. "No, I'm not. My step-father is a Irish Catholic, and he's an old devil."

Wonwoo hummed. 

"Oh, won't you look at that?" Woosung grinned again. He had sucessfully captured Wonwoo's undercrackers. "Wanna reel them in?" He held out the rod for a embarassed Wonwoo. Woosung chuckled to himself, and skillfully brought down Wonwoo's undercrackers without getting them on the ground. Wonwoo felt even more embrassed when Woosung plucked them off the fishing line with his hand and gave them to Wonwoo. 

Great, now he's seen my underwear, and handled my underwear, Wonwoo thought to himself. He got a brief image of something he really, really had to ignore.

"Don't stress, mate, it's no problem. Accidents happen." Woosung told him. The two men went out from Woosung's very nice property. "Don't worry about been sorry. Shit happens." He grinned before saying goodbye. Wonwoo watched from his front door as Woosung walked down the street to give the other neighbour his fishing road back. Wonwoo got inside and closed the door before Woosung could look back and see.

Once inside, Wonwoo slumped down to the ground. He couldn't help himself.

Fucking, fucking hell, he thought to himself. What have you gone and started now?

-

Vernon shone a flash-light up into the roof of Chan's house through a manhole. "You rented a house without knowing it had asbestos?" He remarked down to Chan. Vernon's boss of the electrican company where worked shook his round, bald head.

"The agent said that it -" Chan began, but he got cut off.

"That real estate agent is a lying cunt." Vernon's boss told Chan. 

"Of course he knew it was there." Vernon said to Chan. "The owners definitely know it was there. That's why they're renting out this place and not selling it for some jumped-up price."

"How long is your lease, lad?" Boss asked him.

"Three years." Chan replied.

"Oh, shit." Vernon said as his boss shook his head with a pained expression.

"Best thing to do is get a lawyer and say that you were not told vital information about the property and cancel this lease." Boss advised. "Breathing in this shit - it'll kill you. Did your Mum or Dad come with you when you were looking to tell you what to look for?"

Chan shook his head. "I thought I had it worked out."

Boss shook his head. "I know a guy you can use who isn't a brainless fuck. Most lawyers are the dumbest cunts you've ever come across in your life. I'll get back to you, lad."

"It can be gotten rid of, can't it?" Chan asked.

"Yeah, if you've got five thousand quid." Vernon got off the top of the ladder and put the cover back over the man-hole.

Chan blanched.

"Get a lawyer mate." Vernon and his Boss said together. "This is serious shit."

-

Mingyu was cooking dinner when a knock sounded on the front door. Wonwoo's stomach twisted violently. He knew it before he opened the door.

"They came over the other side of the roof and were in the gutter." Woosung gave Wonwoo another three pairs of underpants; two of them were Mingyu's this time, only one was his. Woosung half-smiled rakishly as Wonwoo's skin coloured vibrantly without Wonwoo wanting it to.

"I'm so sorry." Wonwoo said again.

"Don't be, I've had quite a lot of fun." Woosung replied.

"Still, it's not good." Wonwoo tucked his hands and the clothes behind his back.

He and Woosung looked at each other. "The guy inside," Woosung said. "Is he your partner?"

"Oh, no, Mingyu's straight." Wonwoo smiled, laughing softly. He stopped suddenly, realizing what he has just said. Or, rather, not said. Oh, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, fucking shit...he swore within his being. 

"One day when Mingyu's out being straight, come around, because I think I'd like you even better if you took off all your clothes." Woosung said softly. Wonwoo nearly fell over. "Maybe you should give it a go."

"I - I can come over...now..." Wonwoo trailed off, unable to quite believe what was happening to him.

Woosung's eyes ran up and down him softly. "No, mate, not tonight." Woosung said. He reached and pulled gently at the hem of Wonwoo's green jumper. "You'll thank me later. Goodnight, Wonwoo." His handsome, dark eyes peered at Wonwoo. "What's your last name?" he asked.

"Jeon." Wonwoo swallowed. Woosung smiled a little bit.

"Goodnight, Jeon Wonwoo." Woosung whispered.

When he left, Wonwoo closed the door and felt very silent inside for a long time. Instead of going back through to the kitchen where Mingyu would have finished dinner by now, Wonwoo went upstairs to his bedroom and lay on his bed very still for a very long time.

-

"Wonwoo?"

"Yeah?" Wonwoo answered quickly. He had been off in his own little world. He had this feeling that Mingyu had called his name a couple of time before. Mingyu opened his bedroom door. He could have done it all that time.

"You alright?" Mingyu asked.

"Yeah, I'm sorry." Wonwoo took out his headphone and shut the lid of his laptop sheepishly. Mingyu laid down across the bottom end of Wonwoo's bed. Wonwoo smiled a bit. "Anything happen with the old cunt today?" Mingyu asked. Wonwoo laughed. That was how Mingyu referred to his boss. "Got his credit cards stolen at a bar in the carribean; he's on holiday with his wife." Wonwoo told Mingyu. "Sucked in, the old prick." Mingyu remarked. "How about you?" Wonwoo asked. Mingyu shrugged. "Alright enough, Woo." He sat up. "You hungry?" Wonwoo nodded. "Yeah, Gyu, thank you."


	12. TWELVE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chan runs over breaking up with his girlfriend which leads Vernon and Seungkwan onto a expedition to prove to Chan he does not want to be single again; Sylvia tells Minghao about her cancer diagnosis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Minghao specifically, it's going to be a bit sad until about Chapter Fifteen, but, then, we are happy and funny once more :)

Chan liked his girlfriend, but, did he love her? No...not really.

He only ever saw her on the weekends when her University and work took a break. Fair enough, that's fine. Absolutely fine.

And now he had no house.

And she thought he did.

Absolutely fucking fantastic.

Chan was now sleeping in Vernon and Seungkwan's spare room and when he needed a break from Vernon and Seungkwan half-fighting half-getting-along all of the time, he was sleeping in Soonyoung and Seokmin's spare room.

He wanted her to be happy. Of course he did.

Which was why he was asking Jihoon how he could break up with her without breaking her up.

"Where do you get the idea that I know?" Jihoon remarked, still running over accountaing paperwork for one of his clients in his study; Chan was sitting in the chair opposite Jihoon's desk, and he suddenly felt like a client too, except, fortuantely, he didn't have to pay for Jihoon's services.

"Marie?"

Jihoon's pen stopped writing. He looked up to Chan.

"You didn't have to say that." Jihoon said.

"Didn't mean to put you out." Chan apologised. Marie was still a sharp little knife that cut into Jihoon sometimes.

"No, it's fine." Jihoon shook his head. "Best thing?"

"Yeah?"

"Tell her that you've loved having her in your life and been able to be around her, and, you do want her to be happy, and you don't think you can do that." Jihoon advised. "What that does is give you a roughly two week period where you think about what you want to do and you know what will happen? She'll wait for you. And, then, when the two week period is up, you can say the same thing to her or say something different, and, things will be good, whether you stay together or go seperate ways."

"No, no, I definitely want this to be over." Chan said.

Jihoon looked up from his paperwork to Chan. "Do you really?" He said.

-

Two days after Sylvia came home from hospital, she was doing photographs with Minghao again. 

He sat there quietly, cross-legged and hunched over slightly while Sylvia wrote pages and pages full of words on his skin with a black ink marker and then took photographs, long-distance and short-distance, all in monochrome tone.

"I'll get you your money, love." Sylvia said after two hours after she had finished wiping down Minghao's back. 

"Is everything ok with us?" Minghao asked her. Sylvia hummed and nodded, counting out cash notes for Minghao. 

"We're right, love." She told him. Minghao looked all over her. "Actually, bub, go on, sit down in the kitchen. We'll have a cuppa."

-

"Trust me, it'll be brilliant, mate, don't worry 'bout a fuckin' thing." Vernon told Chan cheerfully as he rigged up the speakers to the stereo system in his van. "It'll be great."

"I'm brekaing up with her, not proposing to her!" Chan told him.

Seungkwan laughed. "Maybe you should." He remarked to Chan, holding a bottle of beer.

"Sorry, what the fuck?" Chan nearly choked on his beer, one, the sound of Jiyoung's favourite band started playing from Vernon's van as a test-run, and due to the shit that had just came out of Seungkwan's mouth. 

"Maybe you should propose to her." Seungkwan said. "I don't think you should break up with her. Because you know what? You're bored in imaptience of getting to know her."

"You're gay!" Chan hollered. "What the fuck would you know about dating?"

"Excuse me, but don't you know who I live with?" Seungkwan pointed to Vernon's navy socks sticking out of the back of the van as he fiddled around with something with something else from his toolbox. "I'll write a book one day about his terrible dating history and I'll be a millionaire. Or, skip the book, just make it straight into a sitcom."

"Oh, yeah, mate?" Vernon turned around, and, suddenly, it was his head with his black beanie on and not his socks sticking out the back o the van.

"The time where you were having sex and then you ripped your foreskin and you had to sit in the kitchen sink of the girls house while her friend ran down the street to the phonebox and got a ambulance." Seungkwan remarked simply, as though he was commenting on the weather and not the matter of Vernon's genitals.

Chan nearly pissed himself laughing as Vernon proceeded to climb out of the van with a electric drill whirring violently and loudly before chasing Seungkwan in laps around the sides of their house and the back and front gardens, telling him in a mix of English and Korean that the whirring drill was going to be shoved up his -

-

Things were quiet in Junhui, Minghao, Sylvia, Mingyu and Wonwoo's section of the city.

"...So, I'm going to go home to the UK to have the radiation and the chemotherapy treatment." Sylvia finished telling a very, very upset Minghao. Minghao tried to take a sip of the now lukewarm tea, but he could. He put it down on the table and buried his face into his hands. Sylvia's lips pressed together in a thin line for a moment, her chin dimpled as her eyes became wet, and she had a mouthful of her own tea.

"So...you could be either here or dead in about seven months?" Minghao asked her. Sylvia nodded.

"I'll be right love." She got up from her chair and sat on the table, wrapping her arms around Minghao who knew he shouldn't be so cut up but couldn't stop feeling it nonetheless, anyhow. "Be right as rain, love, you know me." She rested her head against his.

-

"And what are you on about proposing for anyway?" Chan, Seungkwan and Vernon were sitting in the three-seater bench seat in the cab of Vernon's van. Vernon and Seungkwan had made up nearly instantly, and Seungkwan had his head resting against Vernon's shoulder as Vernon drove. Seungkwan had his elbow up on the door-sill of the passenger door and had his head resting in his hand. He looked at Seungkwan.

"I think it would be a good idea." Seungcheol told him.

"You just want a wedding, that's what." Vernon chuckled softly.

"Oh, give it break, you two." Chan looked out of the window. Thankfully, it wasn't pissing down rain at the moment. "Leave it out, thanks very much."

"This is proof that you need to do something for her and for yourself." Seungkwan went on. "Why are you actually breaking up with her?"

"I..." As Chan tried to think of something to say, Seungkwan directly looked at him and Vernon kept glancing at him between changing gear with the arm that was now around Seungkwan and pay attention to where they were on the road. "I don't know."

"It's a waste of everything, you're bored." Seungkwan told Chan. "So you see this? And this is why all this has been done because you don't actually want to leave Jiyoung?"

Chan settled down silently.


	13. THIRTEEN

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vernon, Chan and Seungkwan put the lopsided grand master plan of lurrrrrve for Chan's woman into action with help from The Beatles, and a new woman who can sing ABBA quite well comes through Vernon's front door in his jeans. Seungcheol continues to struggle with Jeonghan and Joshua

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love ABBA and The Beatles thank you very much, and I don't care what you bong music lovers think because I do like bong music myself but The Beatles and ABBA are unconditionally cool, especially in England *big grin*

"CHAN!" Jiyoung exclaimed, leaning out of her bedroom window in her red satin dressing gown. "OH MY GOD!"

Seungkwan whistled. Yes, he was gay, but even he could appreciate - especially in Vernon's company - that Jiyoung was a lovely looking woman with her black hair, ulzzang face, and model's body. 

Jiyoung clasped her hands to her mouth as the sound of the Beatles singing, "All You Need Is Love" played from Vernon's van, and Chan waved up to her.

"Can you come down?" He asked. "I've got something to tell you."

As her window shut and she disappeared, moving through her house, Seungkwan slapped Chan's shoulder and chattered on like a moderate Hitler.

"Quick, quick, you idiot, come here, between your teeth, quick, shit, here she comes - chomp it! Chomp it! There's no thorns!"

As Jiyoung's front door opened, the first thing they heard - apart from the Beatles - was her laughter at the sight of Chan with a rose between his teeth and Vernon sitting on the roof of his van and trying to pull Seungkwan up there to sit with him. 

"You look a picture." Vernon called down to her. Jiyoung smiled prettily, her cheeks flushing pink.

"Thanks, Vern." She said. Chan winked at her before taking the rose from between his teeth, using his thumbnail to cut the stem, before slipping the flower behind her ear. It matched her dressing gown perfectly.

"Jiyoung, there's something I've been wanting to tell you..." Chan began, but, at his words, there was a look on Jiyoung's face.

"Oh, no, this is terrible." She said softly, her hands coming up to either side of her face. 

"What is it?" Chan asked. Jiyoung swallowed.

"I don't love you." She said. "Like...love, love you."

"Great, 'cause I don't either." Chan replied. Jiyoung's face went expressionless.

"Sorry, what?" Jiyoung managed thick-throatedly.

"I was coming here to break up with you - half break...sort of break up with you but Vern and Kwannie insisted that I'm being an idiot and that I do care about you alot even if I don't love you and this is me telling you all that stuff, right, and them telling me that they know better about me than I do...me." Chan explained. 

Jiyoung slapped him across the face.

"Hey, excuse me!" Vernon intercut before swining his foot out at her. Jiyoung dived out of the way.

"How dare you -" Jiyoung began.

"How dare you hit him you stupid bitch?" Vernon put to her with a growl. "Chan, in the car, we're goin'. She's not treating you like this." His feet collided with a thump to the ground from the roof of the van just as Jiyoung, now having a hissy-fit, through the rose behind her ear to the ground.

"You are a waste of my time." She told Chan.

"And you don't deserve someone as good as him anyway, you anorexic cow." Vernon added through the passenger window, climbing into the driver's seat. "We're going home, mate."

The Beatles still sung as they drove along. Chan was still processing what was happening.

"Am I broken up with Jiyoung?" He said after a while.

"Yes." Seungkwan and Vernon told him concretely.

"I didn't mean for it to go like that." Chan said.

"Well, she's not supposed to hit you, either." Seungkwan remarked.

"So...what do I do now?" Chan looked at his two friends.

"Let's get pissed." Vernon gave the bird to a twat in a Mistubishi four-wheel drive that cut them off at a round-about.

-

Vernon, who had just been texting someone on his phone, looked up at the unmistakeable sound of "Mamma Mia". He looked to Chan who was checking the money in his wallet. They were in a booth that was a bit away away from the dance-floor/club area of the pub they were at in the inner city. "Who the fuck is that playing ABBA? It's not Seungkwan is it? Please, God, don't let it be Seungkwan -" Vernon begged of God and Chan. 

"No, it's some Anglo chick." Chan said, having climbed out of the booth and had a squiz. He grinned. "With Seungkwan dancing with her."

"Ah, shit." Vernon said. "The prick said he was going off to the gents."

"Actually, she's pretty cool." Chan nudged Vernon, getting up from his side of the booth again. "Come on, have a look. Go on. Door's right there." He tugged on Vernon's arm until Vernon agreed.

"Jesus Christ." Vernon said of the scene. At least a hundred people were dancing and singing along to "Mamma Mia" which was sung by a very attractive Anglo woman with white-blonde hair and the club band while Seungkwan danced around a bit with her.

"There's not enough seats in the van." Vernon further added. He looked at Chan. "How do you feel about sitting in the van because the seats get hogged?"

"Yes, I've been broken hearted, ooh, since the day we parted..." The blonde girl crooned into the microphone while the crowd of dancers chanted, "Mamma Mia, here I again. My, my, how can I ever let you go!"

"Let's get some photos." Vernon raised up his phone. "Without evidence we will never be believed."

-

"God, what the hell is that?!" Seungcheol clapped his hands over his ears at the sound of the Fleetwood Mac record playing on the gramophone on Jihoon's kitchen table.

"Edge Of Seventeen." Jihoon grinned. "You have to remember that Stevie Nicks was on drugs and she was mental and she was Pagan. That's why she sounds like that."

"It sounds like she's recovering from throat cancer - oh, fuck, turn it off." Jihoon gave into Seungcheol.

"You'll get used to it." Jihoon told Seungcheol. 

"How was your appointment today?" Seungcheol asked. Jihoon shrugged.

"Yeah, alright, mate." Jihoon leant against his kitchen bench with a mug of tea. He wasn't allowed to drink with the tablets he was on. He had insisted that Seungcheol could drink if he wanted to, he should have to fit in around him and the "heat condition diet". "You could've asked me this on the phone." Jihoon said. "You know this. So why you're around here?" He gazed at Seungcheol. "Is it dumb and dumber?"

Seungcheol couldn't help but laugh suddenly. "Yeah, Josh and Han." He went quiet again. 

"You should say something to them." Jihoon said. "Only thing for it."

"What if I fuck up?" Seungcheol objected. Jihoon shook his head.

"They won't let you fuck up." He answered. "Josh and Han won't let you fuck up. Have some hope. Everything'll be fine, Cheol."

-

"Hello."  
Chan looked around to see the blonde girl from the pub last night. He was in the kitchen and had just made himself a very, very strong coffee. She spoke in Korean. Chan couldn't really remember much of last night - he had drunk himself off like a fish - and, to him, seeing her now was the first time he was able to have a proper look at her. He couldn't remember her name, if he even knew it in the first place.

She was wearing Vernon's jeans and her dark red lace bra. The red of her bra made Chan think of Jiyoung suddenly, and the fact that she was wearing Vernon's jeans made him hot inside. Definitely shouldn't be looking, then.

"You got pretty smashed last night." The girl smiled. She had a gap between her two front teeth and her two lower teeth with a handsome wide, flat Scandinavian face with incredibly thin straight eyebrows and her white-blonde hair - definitely natural - seemed even more significent in it's lack of colour. She had a attractive body without been underweight or overweight. "I'm Christine-Elena, but everyone calls me Chrissie."

"Nice to meet you." Chan reached out to shake Christine-Elena's hand, and he was pleased to see that she shook it back.

He meant every word he said.


	14. DEATH PART ONE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A life-changing and horrific occurrence changes Minghao's life forever, and, admits it all, a urn gets smashed, Joshua gets a new arsehole ripped into him by Wonwoo, Vernon declares the cavalry has arrived, Woosung miraculously happens to speak one of the most difficult ethnic languages on the planet.  
> This chapter is split into two parts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This really is absolutely sad and naturalistic, I should warn you. Religeous tensions and hate culture are mentioned along with terminal illness and suicide

Even for Junhui who had not known Sylvia long, it was strange to see her house without the gold glow of the lights within shining in the night-time.

Junhui looked up to the ceiling. "Yes, I'm Changing" by Tame Impala was playing on Minghao's record player. 

Junhui went up to see him. Minghao was lying on his bed and looking up at the ceiling with the ceiling lights turned off but his lamp on. That black vase was beside his hip on the bed. Junhui laid down beside him.

"I don't know what I'm going to do with it." Minghao picked up the vase. Thank God he was talking, Junhui thought. Junhui shrugged.

"You could send it to a charity shop." Junhui commented. Minghao looked at him as though he was insane.

"Jun, you idiot, do you even know what this is?" Minghao asked.

"Is is made by someone famous and worth something?" Junhui's brows knitted together slightly. Minghao's expression dropped.

"It's an urn. It's got human remains inside." Minghao replied exaggerately. "It's got Sylvia's Mother inside." He paused. "Her Mother left Sylvie and her Dad when Sylvie was a baby. She ran off with this Russian guy she met and he killed her in a domestic violence incident seventeen years ago." He looked down to the urn. "I only have it because Sylvie exploded one day and went to flush her Mum's ashes down the toilet but I got it off her." Minghao sighed through his nose, like a smoker exhaling smoke. "She absolutely loathes her Mother. Says she's a piece of sub-human shit."

"That's horrible."

"You got to understand that most people are arsehole, Jun. Including women."

They went silent.

"That's why she was vomiting blood? The cancer?"

Junhui slowly nodded. He wished he had done nothing - not come up to Minghao's room at all and made him feel like this - as Minghao's began to silently cry. As Junhui went to touch Minghao's arm, Minghao got up from the bed and carried Sylvia's Mother's urn in his hands.

"Bitch!" He hissed suddnely, and threw Sylvia's Mother's urn across the room. Both Junhui and Minghao watched as it smashed onto the ground, and grey ash flew up into the air in a small cloud.

"Oh, fuck." Junhui said. "I hope you know how to fix that 'cause I don't, Hao."

-

They called Wonwoo and Mingyu. 

Wonwoo and Mingyu stood in the doorway of Minghao's bedroom and looked at the mess on the floor. Minghao explained to them what happened.

"No one's going to miss her then?" Mingyu checked, looking deeply disconcerted.

"No fucking way, why?" Minghao said.

Mingyu rubbed his hand over the back of his neck nervously. "Because she's all over the carpet...best thing to do is just vacumn her up into a clean bag and put her back in the urn or..."

"Put her in the bin." Wonwoo finished Mingyu's sentence. It started to rain again.

"Oh, shit." Mingyu swore.

"What is it?" Junhui asked.

"You've just had human remains spilled on the ground, we need to air the room out and now it's raining." Wonwoo explained.

"You know what?" Mingyu suggested, rubbing his hands together. "We'll get this cleaned up and you two come around to our place for the night. How about that?"

Minghao nodded slowly, and, this time, he did let Junhui put an arm around him.

\- 

Minghao finally got around to telling Mingyu what was going on with Sylvia and her cancer diagnosis when they got back to he and Wonwoo's place after cleaning up the remains of Sylvia's Mother.

"That's really sad, Hao." Mingyu and Minghao sat out on the verandah in the back garden on the steps. Mingyu had his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped together, hanging loosely between his knee. Minghao had his knees tucked up to his chest and his arms wrapped around them, as though he was trying to hide away from the world. Mingyu didn't blame him, not in the slightest. "Know she means a lot to you."

Minghao swallowed, his mouth pressing into a thin line for a moment as he ran his hand through his hair. "Do you reckon I should start getting used to her not being around?" He suddenly asked Mingyu, vulnerable and sick and alone.

Mingyu thought for a long time, but stopped doing it as he realized each second must be agonizingly long and ignorant to Minghao. "I don't know how to answer that, mate. I don't know what I mean and I don't know what I'm meant to say and if I should, but...yeah. I don't think it's a bad idea, Hao, eh?" Minghao reached out and rubbed one of his hands over Minghao's head. 

"Is that Wonwoo?" Minghao said after a few minutes.

"What?" Mingyu looked at him. 

"Look." Minghao nodded his head to the direction of next door's back garden where Wonwoo was talking to a much older man over the fence. "What do you think that's about?"

Mingyu was perfectly honest when he answered that he had no idea. 

-

The worst thing possible happened that evening. 

"NO!" Minghao screamed before dropping his phone and sunk down to the ground in a crouch, his face covered by his hands and uncontrollable tears coming down his face.

In hastily and specifically learned Mandarin, the Druid that had effectively raised Sylvia - by order of Sylvia in a note - had rang Minghao. 

Sylvia had hung herself in the Cheshire woods on the Welsh-English border. 

Minghao had been in the hallway by the front door, having just nipped outside for a very rare smoke, while the others were in the kitchen. 

Without actually knowing, subconciously, Mingyu, Junhui and Wonwoo knew what had happened. Mingyu and Junhui surrounded Minghao with their bodies and Wonwoo picked the phone up from the floor and was met by a language he didn't understand and couldn't speak.

Minghao set back against the ground and tried to hold Minghao's body against his, but Minghao tore away from his grasp violently and sobbed as he walked into the kitchen. Junhui was nearly losing control at the sight of Minghao's wretched figure, and Mingyu wasn't coping either.

"Save the number on the phone." Wonwoo got Minghao's phone from the loor, half talking to them, half talking to himself. "For fuck's sake, they'd better not be fucking someone or getting drunk..."

"What's going on?" Junhui said to Wonwoo.

"I need someone who speaks English to do that because the guy - whoever that is - on the end of the line was speaking English." Wonwoo snapped. 

"YOU FUCKING BITCH!" Their heads swiveled around as Minghao suddenly screamed. "YOU STUPID, STUPID, STUPID, FUCKING BITCH! YOU CUNT! ARGH!" He burst into tears again. 

"Josh? Josh, is that you?" Wonwoo tried to get a word in, talking to Joshua over the phone. Suddenly, Wonwoo grew as vicious as Junhui and Mingyu had ever seen. "I DON'T FUCKING CARE WHAT IS GOING ON FOR YOU, SYLVIA JENKINS HAS JUST KILLED HERSELF AND WE'VE HAD HER DAD OR SOMEONE SHE KNOWS JUST RING UP MINGHAO AND TELL HIM IN CHINESE THAT THEY CAN'T EVEN SPEAK! YOU CUNT OF A MAN! TYPICAL SELISH, IGNORANT, PIECE OF SHIT AMERICAN CUNT! GET HERE - NOW!"

"Why's it quiet?" Junhui suddenly whispered to Mingyu. Junhui and Mingyu went into the kitchen. Silently, Minghao was leaning against the island bench with his arms crossed and his head bowed.

Junhui said his name to him, asking him if he was ok. Slowly, but surely, Minghao began to laugh. Mingyu's lungs collapsed on him; the look in Minghao's swollen and wet eyes was beyond manic. "Give me the keys to the car." He said strangely calmly but cruelly to Mingyu. "I'm going home, and I don't care if the cunt's mother is in my carpet. Get the fuck away from me, you sub-human cunts. I don't want you in my life. Why don't you fucking die?" Minghao spat out the last five words in a way that made Junhui's heart break. "Don't ever come near me again, your stuff will be out the front, Jun...I don't want you cunts in my life."

-

The sound of Jeonghan vomiting filled up the apartment again.

"Fuck, I thought he'd be empty by now." Seungcheol said to Joshua. Jeonghan had one mother of a case of poisoning of some sort, and, he had locked the bathroom door on Joshua and Seungcheol. Joshua's phone rung. He saw it was Minghao. Joshua answered the call and put it on speaker-phone so Seungcheol could say hello. 

"Hi, Hao, sorry mate, this is a really bad moment -" Joshua said.

"I DON'T FUCKING CARE WHAT IS GOING ON FOR YOU!" The roar of Wonwoo's voice - Joshua only recognised due to how deep Wonwoo's voice was usually, then transferred to a roar - filled up Joshua's head and split it open. He held the phone out a foot away from his ear, and Seungcheol's eyes widened impossibly big. " SYLVIA JENKINS HAS JUST KILLED HERSELF AND WE'VE HAD HER DAD OR SOMEONE SHE KNOWS JUST RING UP MINGHAO AND TELL HIM IN CHINESE THAT THEY CAN'T EVEN SPEAK! YOU CUNT OF A MAN! TYPICAL SELISH, IGNORANT, PIECE OF SHIT AMERICAN CUNT! GET HERE - NOW!"

Joshua stared open-mouthed at Seungcheol. "One has to -"

"I'll look after Han, you go!" Seungcheol got Joshua into gear and got open the front door so Joshua could rush out of it. 

-

"Hao, we're not letting you drive, not when you're like this." Junhui said firmly to Minghao.

"Like what?" Minghao blinked before a bitter, animalistic grin came onto his face. "Wonwoo..." He called. "No point getting a filthy fucking bible-basher to communicate with Pagans."

"What?" Mingyu frowned.

"Sylvia was raised by a North Welsh pagan tribe after her cunt mother abandoned her and her Father." Minghao explained silky toned and vile. "and you think Josh is going to talk to someone who wants to chop him up into roughly fourteen pieces with an axe?" Minghao burst out laughing again.

"Oh my fucking God..." Junhui murmured to himself before looking around and making sure all the knives were out of Minghao's way. This was when horrible shit one read in newspapers happened.

-

Wonwoo called Vernon and explained what had happened and why he needed him. "And I've just called Josh but then Minghao just said that they're pagans."

"...what's that?" Vernon asked, driving the van as he talked on the phone to Wonwoo. 

"You know the people with matted hair and dreadlocks that worship the earth and are from all the old celtic and anglo and german cultures that want to kill every christian and hippy they see?" Wonwoo briefly summarised.

"Oh my god." Vernon said.

"Sylvia's one of them." Wonwoo confirmed.

"No, she isn't." Vernon suddenly argued.

"How?" Wonwoo demanded.

"They hate slopes, they wouldn't let one in on their native." Vernon explained.

"No, she was raised by a tribe in the UK that's alright with them." Wonwoo said. "Besides, what do you know?" He added accusingly. "Your mum's bhuddist not a fucking pagan. anyway, Josh is Catholic."

"And?" Vernon said.

"You retard." Wonwoo scoffed. "Talking to a pagan nicely is a greater offence than anal sex in the eyes of the Catholic church."

"I'm sure he's not going to -" Vernon started, but Wonwoo cut him off.

"No, seriously, all Catholics are beyond terrified of Pagans because they know the Pagans will tear their throats out with their teeth, stuff like that. The culture's fucking insane." Wonwoo tried to get Vernon to understand.

"Shit, mate, got to go, coppers up ahead, see you in a minute." Vernon hung up the call. Wonwoo would happily bet money that there were no police patrols out at all, Vernon just couldn't handle anything he was being fucking told.


	15. DEATH PART TWO

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A life-changing and horrific occurrence changes Minghao's life forever, and, admits it all, a urn gets smashed, Joshua gets a new arsehole ripped into him by Wonwoo, Vernon declares the cavalry has arrived, Woosung miraculously happens to speak one of the most difficult ethnic languages on the planet. Minghao meets Sylvias Pagan family, and, culture and religion clash 
> 
> This chapter is split into two parts: this is part two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From, here, I promise, things go up :) 
> 
> At the end of this chapter is a dream sequence for him, saying goodbye to Sylvia without saying goodbye at all. The song is Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers. The song was first released in 1965

Woosung knocked on Mingyu and Wonwoo's front door. Wonwoo rushed to open it.

"Thank God you're -" He stopped, seeing it was Woosung.

"Wonwoo -" Woosung began.

"You need to go home, I'm so sorry, you've got to go, this isn't a good time -" Wonwoo tried to explain, but he couldn't. 

"Are you ok? I heard screaming." Woosung asked with a well-meaning, considerate concern. 

"One of our friends has just died, I'm so sorry -" Both Wonwoo and Woosung looked around at the sound of a V10 engine been absolutely hammered. Woosung swore at the sight of Vernon's toyota hiace van screech to a halt outside the gutter at the top of the hill where they lived. Vernon nearly fell getting out of the car, and he ran across the lawn to the front door. 

"Hey, sorry, mate, can I just get past in through there?" Vernon only barely managed before barrelling virtually head-first through Wonwoo and Woosung. 

"MINGHAO, MATE, IT'S ALRIGHT, MATE, CALM DOWN, THE CALVARY'S ARRIVED!" Vernon very audibly shouted. Wonwoo's mouth dropped open before he looked at Woosung and scoffed a laugh.

"That fucking idiot...!" Wonwoo growled under his breath. "VERN, STOP BEEN A DICKHEAD! GET HAO'S PHONE AND CALL THE LAST NUMBER THAT RANG AND FOR FUCK'S SAKE HAVE SOME MATURITY! A WOMAN'S JUST DIED!" He breathlessly looked back to Woosung. "I'm so sorry, I -"

"I'll come in, thanks." Woosung squeezed in past Wonwoo through the door. Everyone was now either between the sitting room and the kitchen. Mingyu, Minghao and Junhui were spitting chips in the kitchen, and Vernon was in the sitting room. 

"Woo, they're not speaking English." Vernon caught Wonwoo by his elbow. "Listen..." The sound of a language definitely not English came through the phone. 

"Oh, great, they're speaking fucking Pagan." Wonwoo said. 

"They're speaking Welsh." Woosung said.

"What?" Vernon and Wonwoo looked up at him. Whatever the language was that was being spoken through the phone, Woosung spoke it back to them for a good fifteen minutes. Wonwoo and Vernon watched him breathlessly, and, after a little while, Junhui, Mingyu and Minghao came into the sitting room. Minghao's ears pricked up at the garbled, ancient language that was been spoken through the phone and through Woosung's mouth. 

A few minutes after that, Joshua came racing in through the front door. "Guys, I -" He looked around at the silent sitting room.

"All done, Josh." Minghao said. He was sitting very quietly and very hollowly by himself in one of the armchairs. He looked to Woosung. "So how do you speak Welsh?" He asked.

"My step-father was an Irish Catholic." Woosung said. "Most Irish hate the Welsh, and he always insisted the homosexuals, worker's unions, black people, and Welsh people were the Antichrist living upon the Earth."

"That'd be the fucking right, the cunt." Vernon opined.

Minghao burst out laughing, but, this time, it was a happy laugh, a healthy laugh. Everyone else laughed too. Minghao suddenly sneezed. 

"Snotface." Vernon remarked. Woosung fished a handkerchief from his pocket and offered it to Minghao.

"I'm not gay." Minghao sniffed.

"Sure you're fucking not." Woosung answered. Everyone got a case of the giggles.

-

Joshua barely got himself back inside he, Seungcheol and Jeonghan's apartment. When he got inside, Seungcheol was waiting for him, sitting in the couch in the adjoined sitting room and kitchen. "How'd it go?" Seungcheol asked. "Are you alright?"

Joshua sat down on the couch beside Seungcheol and leaned into his body. He closed his eyes. "We..." He sighed. "Sylvia's family in the UK...they're all pagans, so, I couldn't have done anything - I wouldn't have. But, the next door neighbour could speak Welsh because his step-father came from that region...I...I don't really know. They didn't want to speak English if they could help it, so, they just went on in whatever gibberish they have as their language..."

"How's Minghao?" Seungcheol asked.

"He was crazy at first; screaming and crying and now he's just silent." Joshua answered. "Sylvia...she had a possibly terminal cancer diagnosis and she went back to the UK for treatement, but she...she hung herself."

"Oh, God..." Seungcheol said softly. "No wonder he's upset."

"Even though we're all there, helping out, I...I don't think they get it." Joshua looked to Seungcheol. "Like, we all feel sorry for Minghao and Mingyu and Junhui are upset because of the way Minghao reacted...but none of them actually get it. Losing someone you need, and you can't call them up in a week's time, you know? The enormity of it...it's like if Jihoon died or if Vernon or Seokmin or Mingyu's sisters - something happened to them. You know what I mean?" Joshua closed his eyes. "And the worst thing they'll expect him to not be changed for the rest of his life. They don't understand that she meant so much to him that her death will change him forever."

-

"I need your love." The back of Sylvia's index finger stroked down over the bridge of Minghao's nose. She was smiling crookedly. 

Minghao woke up from the memory. He'd got what he wanted. He was back in his own bed in his own house across the road from Sylvia's house like it had always been. 

"I can't have you around." Minghao had said to Junhui earlier. "I meant what I said. I don't want any of you around me. Just get the fuck away from me. I don't care."

Minghao closed his eyes again, and tried to go back to sleep. Down the hall, the spare room that had become Junhui's room was now just the spare room to change.

Minghao didn't want anything to change. How sweet would things be if things could just stay the same?

-

TWO WEEKS LATER:

Minghao climbed out of the Range Rover he had hired from a country-wide vehicle service at Heathrow airport, on the edge of the Cheshire forest. About fifty meters away from him stood a man in his mid-forties in trouser's and a waistcoat. He didn't seem to feel the cold as he waited for Minghao to come over to him. He had indigenous tattoos on his arms, chest, neck, and face. He had black long, matted hair shaven away except for a panel about two inches wide along the centre of his scalp that was locked back with wooden emblems and stained-glass beads in it. He had a clean-shaven face. The man had dark olive skin, hooded eyes, thick eyebrows, a straight nose, a thin mouth, and a square face with a strong jawline.

"You're the Druid?" Minghao slid his Lennon glasses down his nose and peered over the top of them.

The Druid nodded. There was no Korean or Mandarin word for Druid. "You couldn't have been here for the goodbye, lad, but we'll take you through to where she is, come with me." He said in English. He held out a hand that was rough and calloused with labour-intensive work to Minghao. Minghao took it.

-

"What an idiot." Joshua said. "They'll kill him. They're psychopaths." 

All of them were at Mingyu and Wonwoo's house. Minghao had taken off out of the blue, and no one knew what was going on until -

"Fucking good." Junhui opined. No one knew quite what to do. Minghao would usually be the one that would look after him in moments like this. But, Minghao had been the one to hurt him so badly, so what could they do?

"If he wants to meet the tribe or whatever they are, that's fine." Jihoon said, and tried to settle it as the end of the manner, but it didn't work. Joshua was pissed off now, and growing steadily more and more so. Everyone went very still and observed as Jeonghan touched Joshua's arm but Joshua shook him off roughly. Joshua never did that - nearly never did that. Every single one of them never used to do many things that were happening now. With Joshua and Jeonghan and Seungcheol's orders nearly settled, it seemed like their fight only a month or two ago had never happened at all. That was a struggle to understand in itself. It was only a month or two ago that they all started to change, and none of them could help it, or seemed to be able to help it.

"They will kill him, Jihoon." Joshua repeated. "Why can't any of you understand that?"

"'Cause you're only saying it because your -" Junhui jumped in. 

"I know better -" Joshua snarled.

"You've the perspective of someone blessed by a child rapist, Joshua, shut the fuck up." Jihoon interjected. 

Joshua wasn't a religious person, as such, despite been blessed as one, but, everyone else considered it sort of understable from where Joshua was. He was being accused of being a certain way because his soul was honoured by a paedophile priest. But it didn't mean all shit had to hit the fan, right? "No, no one starts fighting -" Seungcheol began, but his words were in vain. Religion was religion; considering it was supposed to stop people being animals, it all but was the sole fuel for human beings tearing one another apart by their teeth and nails.

Joshua smashed a beer bottle over Junhui's head out of pure temper and hit Jihoon over the head with the horrifically sharp rest, and, in doing so, a fight more collossal than the world wars erupted.

-

"You know what her favourite song were?" Minghao and the Druid sat on the bonnet of the Range Rover by a lake where the glass-like winter surface of the water was too cold for the sight of ripples from the fish that lived beneath the surface. 

"Righteous Brothers." Minghao answered. "Unchained Melody."

The Druid half smiled gruffly. "You're a nice enough lad even if you're a bit gay."

Minghao looked at him. "Get fucked." He said. The Druid laughed. His chest was like the barrell of a drum, and the sound it emitted was deep and masculined ethereal and homely. 

"Don't be sad, lad." Druid said. "Sylvie was too scared for radiation and chemotherapy at the hospitals. She could have suffered for three months. Ah lad...lad, come to me."

The huge and strong man put an arm around Minghao's shoulders as Minghao's head ducked down, his nerves weak. "She loved you so much, and she was going to go anyway. Lad, listen to me, please. She would have gone." The Druid rubbed his hand over Minghao's head. "You should have seen her...naked and covered in Hangul Shaman runes singing and screaming your name and how much she loves you and how she'll always be here. Lad, you don't know what she did for you."

Minghao looked up to the Druid.

"For the first time in hundreds of thousands of years of modern human history, that girl is the first Shaman blessed child to perform a Hangul Shaman ritual outside of Korea, and not just Korea, outside Asia, outside Europe, all the way over in this little landscape, Cymry." The Druid told him. "That girl made a little exception - just for you - in at least 125,000 years of history. What is the period for your kind in the East." The Druid smiled, his eyes twinkling lovingly. "Stay with us for a while. We won't hurt you, lad. Not when my little girl loved you like she did."

"What about her Dad?" Minghao asked.

"He loved her so much too." And, even though it didn't seem like much of an answer, it was the whole universe of Sylvia Jenkin's life in five words. He loved her so much. He was anyone. He was Minghao, he was Sylvia's Father, he was the Druid, he was everyone she...

"Stay a while, lad." Druid said. "Please. I want you to be able to have this, lad. Have it with you for the rest of yer life. Trust me?" He held out his hand, the palm facing upwards and his fingers closed together. Minghao pressed his softer, long-fingered hand against the Druids, and they tested the weight of each other's pressure against one another for a few moments.

"Sylvia Jenkins isn't her actual name, is it?" Minghao said.

The Druid shook his head. "Jenkins is my name." He replied. "Her name is Min Hyeri, but, that girl was gone long ago, don't you think?"

Minghao nodded. Yes, indeed, she was.

In the back of his head he could hear the sound of Sylvia's singing.

Oh my love, my darling...I've hungered for your touch. Oh love...these lonely times. And time goes by so slowly and time can do so much. are you still mine?

I need your love...I need your love. God speed your love to me

-

SEVENTEEN WEEKS LATER:

"Are you ready to come with me?" Minghao boarded up onto the train that would take them to Heathrow airport and hung onto the outer door rail with one hand while he held out a hand to the girl on the platform. She smiled up at him, a black hat on her head, and a suitcase in one hand.

"Yes." She said. She took Minghao's hand, and they found a seat together on the train. 

After a while, she started to fade off, and Minghao was left looking happily and relievedily and human out of the window at the British countryside scenery going by. He looked up the end of the train. Two men with guitars stood there in their 1960's suits with their oiled back hair and American after-shave and whitened teeth and leather shoes and sung.

"I need your love...I need your love. God speed your love to me..."

Always. Minghao thought, whispered, promised, would carry with him for the rest of his life.


	16. SIXTEEN

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minghao comes home to Korea and makes love to Junhui, while Wonwoo spreads around within 45 seconds that Minghao has come home, and Vernon keeps an eye on the unsure depths of Wonwoo and Woosungs relationship on the grounds that Wonwoo is too young for Woosung

"Oh my God, that isn't...?" Soonyoung tugged on Seokmin's arm. They had taken a shortcut through the city, in the industrial like, tall street where Minghao lived, and, the lights were turned on in Minghao's house, and a English song played from within, the windows wide open.

All in all, Minghao had been in Wales for nearly five months.

Seokmin started to laugh, and it was out of relief. When Minghao had gone, they had thought he'd come back, but, the weeks had gone by with no contact, his house left un-lived in, and...they thought it was over.

It was like been born again, seeing the evidence of another man's life been lived in that house on that side of that street.

"Should we say anything?" Soonyoung said to Seokmin.

"I..." Seokmin pulled up his car down the street so he didn't cause an accident. "I don't know, mate."

"What about Jun?" Soonyoung asked. "Should we tell him just to be half decent?"

Since Minghao had gone to the other side of the world, Junhui had been living with them, unable to cope with paying city rents all by himself, and no way was he in a position to eb able to buy a house, even with a mortgage.

"I don't reckon we need to." Seokmin rubbed his thumbs back and forth across the steering wheel.

"How do you reckon that?" Soonyoung asked.

Seokmin looked to him. "Because I think Minghao will do it. There's been so much time, and, look what time does to people." He smiled a little bit. "We change."

-

Minghao pulled on the clean shirt over his head and looked at himself in the mirror in his bathroom. He no longer saw the same man in the mirror. He was a world away from what he once was.

And, in a way perhaps horrific to others, he was glad for it.

A few minutes later, Minghao knocked on Mingyu and Wonwoo's front door. He could hear the piano been played inside, and it didn't stop as footsteps approached the door. Minghao knew it was Mingyu then, whom he would first see. 

Mingyu's eyes widened as he saw Minghao in front of him. Before he could do or say anything, Minghao wrapped a arm around Mingyu's neck and kissed him on the mouth. He pressed his nose and forehead against Mingyu's and touched the hair at the base of Mingyu's skull by his neck. "You see, the problem with pagans is that you can't actually sexually harass them. If you kiss them, or touch them, they kiss and touch you back. Plus...they bite you and they lick you and they put a claim on you..." Minghao chuckled. "Look at what it's done to all of us, eh?"

-

"Shit." Seungcheol, Jeonghan, Joshua, Junhui, Soonyoung, Jihoon, Seokmin, Seungkwan, Vernon and Chan all said at some point within a few minutes of each other as the silent and eavesdropping Wonwoo texted them with the message the same for each friend:

"Minghao's come back from the UK and he's snogging Mingyu - representing Korea/China in the international championships - on the front doorstep"

-

"You got to remember that Wales is Wales -" Minghao put his leather jacket over the back of the couch in the sitting room. " - not England, not the UK, not the Commonwealth - and Wales is run by Pagans." He turned around and grinned at Mingyu.

"Oh, God." Mingyu said.

"That Druid that raised Sylvia is the most powerful Pagan in what is left of the British Empire. No shit." Minghao laughed. "That's why I was able to stay for so long. Amazing what religion does, right, as far as rules go."

"What's he like?" Mingyu asked.

"Like a Dadda Brown Bear." Minghao tucked some of his hair behind his ear but it immediately sprang back. "Loving and protective and gentle and wholesome and then very, very, very angry and violent and abusive."

"How did you see the dark side?" Mingyu opened the glass sliding doors out onto the verandah. It was the middle of Summer now.

"Put it this way - it just goes to show that Latterday Saints don't have a high IQ level." Minghao quipped. Mingyu couldn't help it; he burst out laughing. Wonwoo came into the sitting room.

"Told everyone." He said simply. Mingyu looked at him.

"Sorry, but how the fuck do you do that?" Mingyu put to Wonwoo. "Hao's - what?" He checked his watch. "Been in the house for forty-five seconds and you've gone and -"

Minghao's phone nearly vibrated itself out of his pocket as it was suddenly inundated with phone calls. Wonwoo smiled proudly.

"Good one, Woo." Minghao remarked meaningfully.

"You don't fucking say?" Wonwoo chipped in, before touching Minghao's knee and leaving. Mingyu asked him where was he going.

"Go and see if Woosung's got his air-conditioning fixed so I don't hear you two at it -"

"Wonwoo, don't you remember?!" Minghao shouted. "Nothing ever happens!"

Wonwoo laughed. Minghao felt something bloom inside of him. He hadn't heard that sound for a very, very long time. 

"No once will it ever happen either!" Mingyu put in his opinion as the front door closed with a considerate gentleness. 

Mingyu sat down beside Minghao on the couch. Mingyu looked at Minghao. "I missed y-"

"I don't want to hear it." Minghao cut Mingyu off. "I know you and everyone else has about a million things like that and harsher things to say to me, but, the fact is, I know."

They went silent for a few minutes until Minghao half-crawled over the couch into Mingyu's space. "Why did we never actually get together?" Minghao asked. His body went up over Mingyu's, his elbows on the back of the couch either side of Mingyu's head. Mingyu tipped his head back to look at Minghao.

"Cause I'm not that you and you're not that way even though we both fuck around alot. We do it for fun." Mingyu answered.

-

Vernon and his Boss were elected with the job of fixing Woosung's air-conditioning and some of the lighting in his house. It was genuine work that needed doing. Vernon kept an eye on the job he was doing, but, also, he kept an eye on Wonwoo who was out on the back verandah with Woosung.

"You right, mate?" One of the guys, Daewon, that Vernon worked with asked.

"Yeah, Dae, all good." Vernon said down to him from the ladder he was on. "Just keeping an eye on someone whose too young for the other..."

"He's gay?" Daewon quipped.

"You see, that's the thing." Vernon got down from the ladder for a minute. "Anyone born before 1989 generally isn't very...exuberant with their sexuality, shall we say? Especially ones with fire-and-brimstone Irish Catholic step-father's." Vernon pointed to Woosung.

"So, your friend is the young one?" Daewon checked. Vernon nodded.

"Doesn't look like the older one would be his type." Daewon remarked.

"What a pain in the arse." Vernon mumbled under his breath before climbing back up the ladder.

-

Minghao found out from Mingyu where Junhui was living. There was no one home at Soonyoung and Seokmin's house when he slipped a note through a letter-box in the door, written in Mandarin.

Come home.

Please.

-

When Junhui came through the front door of his current home, and once more re-living the feeling of being a rat in someone's home even though he contributed money for the bills and the rent and anything else that needed paying, he swore. He had just stepped with a wet city-shoe footprint all over one of the bills. Great. Junhui blinked when he picked it up. It wasn't a bill - thank Christ - it was a note folded in half. He opened it up. Must be the local bible-basher's out idiot-fishing, Junhui instantly thought.

Come home.

Please.

Junhui dropped the note out of sheer shock. He dived and caught it once more before it hit the ground. He read it again.

"Fuck me." He said under his breath before turning on his heel and racing back out of Soonyoung and Seokmin's front door. 

-

Minghao was lying on the couch in his sitting room with one of his arms across the back of the furniture smoking a cigarette, a matter of which he had taken up full-time now since he had been to Wales and well and truly accepted and loved the lingering promise of death each time he lit one up when knocking on his door sounded out. Minghao closed his eyes briefly. He got up to answer it, knowing down in his gut who it was; he held his cigarette between his index and middle fingers and thumbed his brow with his blunt-nailed thumb as he came up the hallway. 

When he opened the door to Junhui, he didn't even give the older man oppotunity to think about roaring and screaming his head off. Minghao stepped in close to Junhui and his slim fingers wrapped into the lapels on the jacket Junhui was obliged to wear to work. No tie if he didn't want to, but the jacket was complusory, even to just walk past the doormen by the elevators and the supervisor on floor twenty-eight.

Minghao pressed his nose and forehead up against Junhui's gently and breathed him in without breathing all over him or blowing smoke onto his skin. 

"Missed you." Minghao whispered.


	17. SEVENTEEN

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The guys throw a huge party for Minghao; this involves bottles of wine with pornography on the labels, Vernon giving the proud speech of a RAF squadron leader, Jeonghan kissing Joshuas neck, Soonyoung falling sown the stairs, Chan's girlfriend playing Bohemian Rhapsody on a electric guitar in her knickers and much, much more

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy times are back, darlings :)

Whether Minghao liked it or not, they were having a well and big proper bloody bash. Their worlds had been decidedly empty since Minghao had pissed off to Wales. They weren't angry at him anymore; they didn't have it in them anymore.

For those who didn't have cars, as many people as possible were shoved and squished in to Mingyu's Mazda hatchback, Seokmin's BMW Mini, and Joshua's Hyundai. Vernon's van was packed full of "party-gear" - organized by Seokmin, Soonyoung and Seungkwan - so God knows what that was. Chan said he'd be coming his own way, and, honestly, it was probably best, because there was no room anywhere else.

"Oh my God, what the hell is that?" Jeonghan - having had a squiz into the back of Vernon's van on the request of Joshua - pulled out a bottle of amber coloured alcohol where the label was a naked girl with red hair getting cuddled by a panda.

"Always going to be in for a good night when you have hybrid sexual relations on the label." Vernon leaned out of the driver's side door with a grin.

Jeonghan, Joshua and Seungcheol had come around to Seungkwan and Vernon's earlier before they went around to Minghao's because the Hyundai was making a funny noise and Vernon was quite mechanically practical. As Jeonghan, Joshua and Seungcheol were not.

In the slightest.

"When did one of you fucking morons last change the oil?" Vernon inquired conversationally.

"What?" Joshua, Jeonghan and Seungcheol echoed.

Vernon remarked incredibly well-manneredly that it was their own fault that they've nearly blown the Hyundai up and as a result they all ought to be strung up by their privates and shot.

-

The front door was un-locked when the "clowns" turned up. All of the group took pride in the name "clown" that night. Especially when it was shouted at them by a middle-aged traffic warden on a round-about who was probably angry that he couldn't get an erection up anymore and he was an ugly git.

"So, whose not here?" Seungcheol checked before they went in. 

"Jihoon and Chan." Mingyu counted heads which was a easy feet for him been a sequoia tree.

"Unto the breach dear friends because I have half a kilo of bags of bash for passion and, tonight, we as feckless but very good-looking human being have transported thyselves to generally been on the cutting edge of fucking about." Vernon declared cheerfully, and saluted them all like a RAF squadron leader, before quite literally kicking Minghao's door in. 

-

"Fucking Jesus, what was that?" Junhui jerked awake, Minghao's naked body held in his arms beneath the covers of Minghao's bed at the sound of someone shouting and then a door been kicked in. "We've got Robbers -"

Minghao caught Junhui's face in his hands and guided him down to kiss him. Minghao moved up over Junhui's body and swallowed down his protests, one of his arms going by Junhui's head while his other hand went into Junhui's hair. Minghao slipped his tongue into Junhui's mouth and was rubbing it over the roof of his mouth when Seungkwan's unmistakeable and very pansy-like scream screeched through the air, Joshua said something Catholic but was taking the piss nonetheless, and everyone generally made a huge noise over nothing.

"Is this the gay central or what?" Vernon joked, as Soonyoung, Seokmin and Seungkwan dived onto the bed and rugby tackled Minghao and Junhui.

"OH, YUCK, THEY'RE NAKED, GET OFF!" Seungkwan screeched as - part of the manic behaviour and the joke - he ripped the covers off Minghao and Junhui.

Joshua promptly pressed Jeonghan's face into the crook of his neck, Seungcheol covered Joshua's eyes and Mingyu put his hand over Seungcheol's mouth before he could potentially say something -

"Ah!" Joshua jerked away from Jeonghan with a grin on his face as Jeonghan bit and licked his neck. "Fucking hell..." He laughed, taking Seungcheol's hand from over his eyes. He quickly swore again and grabbed the front of Jeonghan's jeans and pulled him to him by the belt loops. Unbeknownst to Jeonghan, he had been half a millimeter from going down the fucking stairs backwards on his head.

"Look, anyway mate, we're having a party so get your cock out, right?" Vernon explained considerately-toned before shutting the bedroom door. He looked to everyone else. "Trust me, nothing shocks me after I've seen Seungkwan sucking someone off up the alley of a Weatherspoons and my sister having a threesome lesibonics session when she was thirteen." Vernon said.

Everyone nearly pissed themselves laughing, and, this time, someone did fall down the stairs.

It was fucking Soonyoung.

-

The sound of a motorcycle ripped through the air.

"What a cock." Junhui quipped to Minghao about the rev-counter of the motorcycle. They were sitting on the island bench in his kitchen, and they had the most bizarre combination of things. Junhui was drinking beer with raspberry lemonade mixed into it - that's the only way he could drink beer and liked it - while Minghao had red wine with saki in it. Minghao leant his head against Junhui's shoulder.

"You'll vomit green radioactive waste later." Seokmin pointed to Minghao's drink. He was standing by them, having a chat. 

"Amazed Kwannie doesn't do that when he sucks of Vern." Junhui remarked.

"Shh, shh, for fuck's sake, shut up, not tonight." Seokmin dived in quickly.

Junhui listened to the air. "Oh, wait, that fucking idiot on his bike is coming up our street." He said to Minghao and Seokmin. All of a sudden, Seungcheol, Soonyoung - who didn't seem to concussed - were yelling, and...was that Chan?

-

"FUCKING HELL CHAN! SHE'S BEAUTIFUL!" Seungcheol leaned out of the window in the sitting room and held his bottle of beer which he thought Jeonghan might have had a swig of earlier in toast to Chan. Chan had been thinking about getting a two-wheeler for ages, and, he finally had. 

"WHAT?!" Soonyoung joined in the yelling. Who was "she"?

"CHAN'S GOT A BIKE!" Seungcheol yelled to Soonyoung.

"NO WAY!" Joshua and Jeonghan shouted. Joshua, Jeonghan and Soonyoung rushed over to the window where Seungcheol was, and messed about for getting a look.

"YEAH WAY! IT'S GREAT!" Chan got off the bike and took off his helmet. For the first time, they noticed Chan had a passenger. All of their eyes widened at the sight of one very, very lovely womanly backside as the passenger climbed off the bike with her hand in Chan's, and she took off her helmet too. Their mouths came open as she swished her masses of white-blonde hair about and called out to them in a song-sounding and very, very attractive Scandinavian language.

"BUT WHAT'S BETTER?" Chan grinned widely with his hair all messed up, putting his arm around the blonde woman's shoulders. "MY WOMAN OR THE BIKE?!"

-

"Harley Davidson?" Seungcheol asked.

"BMW?" Wonwoo questioned.

"Kawasaki?" Vernon squinted out of the window at the motorcycle parked beside Seokmin's BMW Mini on the driveway. Most of them had managed to get their cars in safely. Joshua's Hyundai and Seokmin's BMW Mini were on the drive now with Chan's motorcycle and Mingyu's Mazda hatchback. Vernon's van was parked out on the street.

"KTM." Chan answered.

"Who?" Seungcheol echoed.

"I'd rather a motorcycle made by the Swedish instead of Japs, Nazi's or Yanks." Chan added simply. He glanced over to where Christine-Elena was catching up with Seungkwan. He was yet to explain all of that. But he figured Seungcheol and Wonwoo were probably wondering why Seungkwan was carrying Christina-Elena around with her legs wrapped around his waist and her hands in his hair.

"Didn't they help the Germans in the second world war?" Seungcheol quipped. Wonwoo and Chan laughed.

"No, that was the Switz. Hence the saying, "I'll be like the Switz in the second world war"." Vernon explained. "Traitorous cunts." He added, taking a sip of his beer. 

"Now, whose the woman?"

"You remember the video I sent of Seungkwan doing ABBA at the pub in town a couple of months ago?" Chan said. "No? Right, that's ok, but that's the chick. On the night we went out she came home with us and when I saw her the next morning I thought she'd slept with Vernon but she hadn't. She was wearing his jeans, see, but I found out later that she had taken her dress off when she had slept on the couch and couldn't find it initally so she got his jeans off the clotheshorse in the laundry."

"After she vomited into the laundry sink." Vernon added.

"She's good?" Wonwoo asked. Chan nodded.

"Might marry her." He remarked quietly. Seungcheol, Wonwoo and Vernon stared at him.

"Uh...anyone know when Hoonie's coming?" Wonwoo said after a few moments, feeling he was responsible for causing that situation.


	18. EIGHTEEN

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party continues with Jihoon arriving in a 1959 Mark II Jaguar, and Joshua asking Minghao if he will ever go back to Wales

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should add, there is a lot of old music in this boom. Queen, ABBA, The Righteous Brothers, and, next...Tom Jones

"Joshy, Joshy, come quick, quick, I want to show you something." Vernon got Joshua away from Seokmin and dragged him out of the front door. 

"Look at that Jag outside, isn't she beautiul? I'd love to know who owns that." Vernon said. "That's the car like Inspector Morse had - 1959 Jaguar Mark II."

"Wanna grab a photo?" Joshua said.

"Yeah." Both young men raised their phones up and promptly nearly dropped them at a very short man that they very much recognised climbing out of the driver's door.

Jihoon walked up them; the sight of Jihoon in the Jaguar was profound enough, but it was derailed by a even bigger shock. Jihoon looked extremely sick, and his skin was clammy pale. Behind him, he wheeled a oxi-tank on a stand. He smiled when he saw the two of them.

"Don't make a fuss, please." He begged of them quietly. "Just...enjoying what I can do with my profits as a over-priced business accountant." He smiled.

"You really deserve that car." Joshua told Jihoon, giving him a hug.

"No one's ever turned up a cardiologist in a Jag, I don't reckon." Vernon patted Jihoon's hair.

"Alright, enough of this." Jihoon swatted them away, but he wasn't been un-kind. "I'm the man with my beautiful vintage Jag. Let's gloat." Suddenly, he frowned. "Oh, fuck, who outdid me with that KTM?" He pointed to Chan's motorcycle.

Vernon gave the motorcycle the finger while Joshua held Jihoon's shoulders and told him, "Don't you worry, nothing can upstage a Jag - especially not a Inspector Morse Jag."

"Inspector what?" Jihoon said.

-

"Oh my...fuck." Jihoon's vision swam as his head was torn apart by the sound of a electric guitar playing the rift from Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody". Yet unbeknownst to Jihoon, and two Joshua and Vernon were had caught Jihoon as he swayed very, very badly in the front doorway of Minghao's house, It was Christina-Elena who was now just running around in her light grey lace bra and knickers.

"She's the lead singer in a rock band back in Denmark." Chan said happily to Seungcheol in the kitchen. Seungcheol's mouth had dropped open at the sight of Christine-Elena walking across the island bench in Minghao's kitchen with her white-blonde hair going down to her waist and one of guy's woolen-hats on her head. "But her family are foreign company directors for Hyundai and she's been seeing them a lot recently because they permantely shifted to Korea from Denmark about twelve months ago."

"Can you do smoke on the water?" Mingyu shouted.

"Ja!" Christina-Elena called enthusiastically. She jumped down from the island bench and proceeded to play the iconic rift.

"WILL SOMEONE SHUT THAT FUCKING THING UP?!" Joshua's voice suddenly howled.

-

Out of respect for the very poorly Jihoon - and the fact that most of them were pleasently smashed enough as it was on terrible alcohol - they all crowded into Minghao's sitting room with the TV playing softly in the background and no lights turned on except for the lamps over the mantle which gave just enough light but still kept it cosily dark. Christine-Elena mumbled something in Danish that no one understood.

"That's right, love." Chan said to her. They were sitting on the couch and he had his arm around her; Christine-Elena had nudged Chan right up against the arm of the couch, allowing him no hogging space at all. Everyone had a laugh, but they kept it quiet. Joys of interracial dating, eh?

"Want to put on a DVD?" Vernon asked. Everyone said no.

"With you it's either British Top Gear, Fast & The Furious, James Bond -" Joshua began, but Vernon cut him off.

"And, yeah, look at you with your gay animes and your Ghibli." Vernon remarked smoothly.

"I pick film, ja, boys, so shut up fightin', donkey cunts." Christine-Elena said in smattered Korean; it seemed her language skills disintergrated when she got smashed. She slid off the couch and crawled across the carpet like a animal to the cabinet beneath the television. She looked inside. "Is no good." She decided. "Is no good at all, boys, ja."

They all laughed again. "Hey, wild thing, come here." Chan relaxedly tipped to his side - as much as he could - on the couch and held out his arms for her. Christine-Elena crawled back across the floor and climbed up into his arms before settling half in a ball on his lap. 

"You two make a really nice couple." Jeonghan mumbled. He was lying side ways across the carpet with Minghao beside him who was lying on his back. All of them were on the floor except for Joshua, Mingyu, Junhui, Seungcheol and Seungkwan who had bagged the remaining space of the couch and the armchairs. Vernon went into the kitchen for something, and Soonyoung had gone to sleep on Vernon's arm and hadn't woken up when Vernon had shifted out.

"What was it like over there?" Jeonghan asked Minghao. "In Wales?"

Minghao lit up a cigarette. Minghao was the only person allowed to smoke in his house. He called out for Vernon to get him a ashtray. So Jihoon wouldn't be breathing in smoke, Minghao shifted closer to the window and opened it up, sitting on the windowsill.

"It was amazing." Minghao said after a long while. "They're so real and honest and safe and natural and animal and loving and, I..." Minghao broke off. "It makes you realize that how we live and everyone else we know - it makes you realize how fake and ignorant and selfish and unashamed they are of all the shit they do not just to themselves but inflict on others. There was one day, not long before I got on the plane. I got talking to one of the pagan girls, Dghoco." The Welsh name ran off his tongue warmly and familiarly. "She took me up to the top of this huge, huge river in the mountains, and, down from there is this huge waterfall and rapids. It looks like something out of Lord of the Rings, right? She just looked at me and said, "And as we fall to the water we jump high in the sky", before she just grabbed my hand and we dived down it..."

Everyone listened intently, helpless of not doing so otherwise, as Minghao paused a thumb his brow for a few moments.

"I could stay there forever." He looked out to the starry Summer sky outside above them. 

"You're not going to go back, are you?" Joshua asked. Minghao looked directly to him. Joshua almost shrunk under Minghao's gaze.

"Well, I'm not going to never come back here if I do leave again, even tomorrow." Minghao simply, softly, and that was the end.


	19. NINETEEN

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeonghan accidentally causes chaos by thinking a deeply sleeping Jihoon had passed away in his sleep, Soonyoung beggars Minghao about he and Junhui's relationship, Junhui is having a hard time keeping his hands off Minghao, Minghao thinks about his career now Sylvia has died and he no longer models for her, and, Joshua reveals a fact about sex to Jeonghan who can never tell it to anyone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Considering the scene I've just written, probably absolutely fitting the song beneath is "What If I Told You That I Loved You" by Ali Gatie slowed down by imlonely on Youtube (that really is marvelous for the soundtrack of this novel)

"So, are you and Junhui lovers now?" Minghao was asked by Soonyoung the next morning. Nearly everyone had stayed over, sleeping in every room in the house. For example, Chan and Christine-Elena were sleeping in the bath-tub with a winter duvet tucked in around them.

"No." Minghao answered. He made Soonyoung a coffee.

"So what was that at the bash then?" Soonyoung asked. "You two were definitely naked."

"Welcome home present." Minghao told Soonyoung simply. 

Soonyoung guffawed a laugh that surely woke everyone in the house up. "Sure it was, mate."

Minghao looked at him with an eyebrow raised but didn't say anything. 

-

LAST NIGHT:

"So you two are getting in together then?" Seokmin said to Junhui with Minghao with bit of a grin.

"And you will sleep on the blow-up beds because Jihoon needs to be in the spare room with the proper bed -" Minghao started off but Jihoon interjected.

"No, Jihoon doesn't." Jihoon grumbled, fiddling with the extremities dial on his oxygen tank. No one had dared to ask him what was going on out of fright.

"Yes, Jihoon does." Joshua, Chan, Vernon, Christine-Elena, Seungkwan, Seokmin, Seungkwan, Soonyoung, Mingyu, Wonwoo, Jeonghan, Seungcheol and Junhui said together.

When everyone was eventually settled down on couches and in armchairs and blow-up beds and...bath-tub's, Minghao half-smiled to himself as he felt Junhui's hand tracing over his hip.

"No, you can't be quiet and there's other people in the house and Jihoon's up the hall so don't even..." Minghao trailed off easily as Junhui kissed his neck. 

"After they go?"

"Promise." Minghao said. Junhui sighed, his breath warm against Minghao's neck. His arm was wrapped over Minghao's thin body, and their bodies were pressed together, Minghao's back up against Junhui's front. 

"Christine-Elena is really good on her guitar." Junhui mumbled into Minghao's hair. Minghao smiled.

"Yeah, but she's a bit wild, you think?" Minghao answered.

"Nah, precisely what Chan needs. What we all need. Imagine Chan coming in and saying that he's begging to God and doesn't know what to do about his Danish girl, she's fucking him ragged..." Junhui said.

Minghao and Junhui laughed softly. "Shh, shh, seeing as she's one of the master race she'll probably have supersonic hearing." Minghao turned over in Junhui's arms and moved in against him. "Why have you got clothes on?"

"Because we have people in the house and this would be the day where Jihoon has a heart-attack and we get smothered by all our friends demanding that we get up and play God with the ambulance on speed-dial and you saw their reaction earlier." Junhui answered.

"Take them off." Minghao's thumbs hooked in Junhui's pyjama pants, and, soon, Junhui was completely naked and back in bed with him. Minghao moaned very, very softly as he felt Junhui's bare cock press up against his.

"Don't you dare get an erection." Minghao told him.

"But what if I do?" Junhui grinned.

"I'll strangle you." Minghao remarked.

-

"Is Jihoon up yet?" Jeonghan came into the kitchen and asked. Minghao shook his head as he stacked the dishwasher.

"No, Josh isn't." Soonyoung said.

"I said Jihoon, you idiot, not Shua." Jeonghan bit at Sooyoung.

"Not yet." Minghao looked over his shoulder and answered. 

"Ok." Jeonghan nodded.

"Don't wake him up." Minghao warned, but Jeonghan was already bounding up the stairs.

"HE'S NOT BREATHING, GET AN AMBULANCE!" Jeonghan suddenly shrieked. Soonyoung choked on his coffee and Minghao hit his head on the bench above the dishwasher.

"JEONGHAN, SHUT UP YOU IDIOT!" Jihoon suddenly roared. "IT'S A BLOOD NOSE AND I WAS ALSEEP, GOD! GUYS, DON'T WORRY -" His roaring was cut off by a bout of savage coughing and a pained groan. "Great!" He exclaimed.

Suddenly, Joshua and Seungcheol followed by Mingyu, Seokmin, Seungkwan and Soonyoung were charging up the stairs like there was no tomorrow.

"DON'T RUIN MY HOUSE!" Minghao shouted after them. The house was suddenly filled with people yelling and chattering and consoling and telling-off. Minghao got Soonyoung's empty coffee-mug and promptly smashed it on the ground.

He felt better after doing that.

Minghao went off to find a dustpan and brush. 

-

"How long is it since you've done your music?" Junhui asked Minghao when everyone had calmed down.

"What?" Minghao looked up from his own laptop. He had been typing an email, but that could wait. He shut the lid of the laptop and put it down on the coffee-table beneath the window-sill in the sitting room.

"It's just that..." Junhui looked nervous suddenly. Minghao got Junhui to sit down beside him on the couch. 

"No, tell me." Minghao said, pushing some of his hair back behind his ears, but, as always, it immediately sprung free.

"Since she isn't around anymore you're not modelling anymore and you're not getting paid -" Junhui's face flushed shamefully and he broke off. Minghao didn't mind, and he tried to get it across to Junhui.

"She left me money in her will, but, yeah, I've been thinking about that because I'm not going to be living on the money or anything." Minghao explained.

"Can I ask how much she left you?" Junhui questioned.

"£180,000." Minghao replied.

"How much is that in our money?" Junhui genuinely didn't know. Minghao moved his head from side to side slightly.

"Quite a lot considering she's only our age." He put it frankly.

"I see." Junhui rubbed his hands together slowly. Minghao looked down at him and something very distant and soft bloomed in him simply at the sight of that. Junhui was been possibly as decent as he had ever been, especially towards the subject of Sylvia and Minghao himself.

"No, you don't." Minghao said with a small smile.

"Ok." Junhui nodded.

"I'll have it sorted out by the end of the week." Minghao moved over and pressed his mouth for a moment against Junhui's temple, smoothing his hair back.

"No! I don't mean to -" Junhui startled easily, but Minghao cut him off before he well and truly had a fit. Minghao had learned a couple of things when he had been away from the home he established for himself. This was proof of one; it's depth gravitated on other's just as much as him. 

"No, you're not. It's something that needs to be done." Minghao said. "It's fine."

-

LAST NIGHT:

"Where's the weirdest place recently you've had sex?" Jeonghan said to Joshua. They were getting delightfully smashed and you could always ask bizarre things when you were delightfully smashed. They were in Minghao's dining room and the house was still pleasantly warm from the day earlier, seemingly especially in that little section of the house.

"Well, I haven't had sex as of recently." Joshua said.

"Bullshit." Jeonghan grinned. "You've gone out."

"Not for that." Joshua shook his head and ducked it down to the ground out of shyness. Jeonghan didn't believe him, and he nudged his fist at Joshua's hip. Joshua looked at him.

"What...really?" Jeonghan's brows furrowed together slightly.

"Absolutely fucking celibate." Joshua said honestly and quietly. "Could set an example to the whole Catholic priest-hood." He scoffed a laugh.

"I could never get that with catholic priests." Jeonghan admitted. Joshua looked at him inquiringly. "Lifetime without sex." Jeonghan explained himself. "Is that why they go for raping altar boys in the resptartory?"

Joshua scoffed another laugh, but, this time, it was less impressed. "Funny. You know I don't support any of that shit, right?" A dark gleam came into his eyes for a few moments. Jeonghan felt himself go still inside. He was teetering on the edge of really pissing Joshua off and seeing as they were both getting smashed, that really wasn't a good idea. "I think they're sub-human scum like the rest of them."

"That's just proves it." Jeonghan said, trying to console Joshua's offended senses to some degree.

"Prove what?" Joshua echoed.

"You're not that Catholic?" Jeonghan grinned, if slightly nervous. Joshua took it candidly.

"I hate that shit." Joshua sighed. "What we were talking about?" He quipped, having a mouthful of beer.

"I asked you where's the weirdest place you've had sex recently and you were saying that you haven't had any for ages." Jeonghan supplied.

"Yeah..." Joshua looked up to the ceiling and sighed again. He closed his eyes briefly. It wasn't because he was drunk, or because he was tired. Well, he was tired, and, sometimes, he did feel drunk, but it was just for the characteristic lost of state of mind he came over about with when he did consume alcohol. The irony was, not a great deal had happened when Minghao had been gone. It was like they all put their lives on hold a bit. And, Joshua thought, maybe it disturbed him a bit too that Minghao went running for heathens on the other side of the world and Sylvia's house stayed exactly as it was. A tiny smile littered over his lips for a second, remembering holding the ladder for Junhui while he perved in on Minghao's modelling session for Sylvia. Well, that was the answer, then, wasn't it? Minghao elected five months to heal. And, had it worked?

Well, they were still seeing.

"Is this because of Tae-ri?" Jeonghan asked. Joshua tipped his head to the side and looked through half-lids at Jeonghan.

"No, Han. Just forget about her. She's nothing." Joshua swallowed, his throat suddenly hurting and dry. He looked down to his beer, but didn't drink any. He had gone off it suddenly, but it was a suddenly that felt like forever. "If I tell you you can't tell anyone else, alright? Ever - even next time we fight, ok?" He put across to Jeonghan.

Jeonghan nodded cautiously. "What was it?"

"The last girl that I ever...it wasn't just sex." Joshua barely felt alive and concious as he said it. "I could have really loved her. I could just tell, looking at her...and I..."

"Shua?" Jeonghan touched Joshua's arm. He looked like he really needed to sit down. Jeonghan guided him over to lean by the windowsill, and he still kept a hold on him in case he did lose grip of his senses.

Joshua looked at Jeonghan. "She died."

It took a few moments, but, when the penny dropped for what, Jeonghan's touch on Joshua's arm left.

"Oh my God." Jeonghan said softly. His hand nearly came up to cover his mouth, but he let it drop, as it would have looked to significant and too implicating of the subject talked about to the rest of their ignorant friends currently in Minghao's house. "Oh, Shua..."


	20. TWENTY

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jihoon takes Soonyoung and Seokmin for a cracking ride in his 1959 Mark II Jaguar, Junhui and Minghao have a round of sex, and Wonwoo goes on his first date with Woosung even though he met the man nearly six months ago and has been thinking about him constantly for all that time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1000 hits today - only 7 days since I posted - and it was my chwaer's birthday today and I am so quietly happy :)

"How do you drive it?" Soonyoung and Seokmin looked around the outside and through the windows into the inside of Jihoon's Jaguar.

"With the gear-stick you idiot." Jihoon opened the driver's door and pointed to the part of the car.

"I never seen one with dead cow all around it before." Soonyoung remarked defensively of the leather upholstery around the heart-stick and the hand-break.

"Oh, shut up." Jihoon told him easily.

"Hey, don't snap at him, he doesn't know any better, he can't help it." Seokmin appealed to Jihoon's kinder senses. it didn't quite work.

"Idiot." Jihoon confirmed concretely. "Jump in; wanna drive around the block?" Seokmin nodded enthusiastically at the offer and Soonyoung opened the back door and peered inside at the dark red original leather upholstered seats.

"Did any old people die in this?" He questioned.

Seokmin nearly pissed himself laughing. He held the driver's door open for Jihoon and helped him handle his t"No, they did not." Jihoon glared up into the Jag's rear-vision mirror at Soonyoung when he slid into the driver's seat.

"It's like from world war two." Soonyoung inhaled the old-world mechanical scent of the vehicle.

"1959." Jihoon remarked the year. Seokmin settled in the passenger seat with a grin. At this rate they were another sixty-something years off Jihoon putting the key into the Jaguar's ignition.

"Exactly." Soonyoung quipped.

Jihoon's tightened hands ran over the walnut steering wheel. He glanced at Seokmin. It's ok, don't worry about it, Seokmin mouth, trying not to smile too widely. He reached over and patted Jihoon's knee. The nozzle of Jihoon's oxygen tank pressed up against his collarbones sharply. Seokmin made sure the translucent cord wasn't wrapped around the Jaguar's gear-stick. "Second world war started 1939 and ended 1945, how don't you know, because the amount of times in the last five years Vernon and Wonwoo have gone on about it -"

"Ji, it's ok." Seokmin held the oxi-tank in his lap for Jihoon.

"Why don't we go for a bigger drive?" Soonyoung said as Jihoon turned the corner.

"Becuase, one, I need to get to a appointment at hospital and if a policeman sees me with the tank driving a car he'll happily fine me enough money to be able to buy a V12 620 horses power Bentley Contintenal for every day of the week." Jihoon said. "Plus a couple of Mclarens and maybe a Mercedes SLR!"

"I thought you hate german cars." Seokmin commented.

"Oh, of course I do, heaps of absolute over-priced shit." Jihoon responded candidly. Seokmin patted his head.

"What about Alfa Romeos?" Soonyoung asked.

Jihoon nodded his head and changed gear for the vehicle, the Jaguar been manual drive. "They'll find a way to fuck you up to. you'll be driving down the freeway and you think that the electrics won't fail, and the car sings out in Italian, "Guess fucking what!"."

Seokmin and Soonyoung laughed.

"They always find a way, they're alfas." Jihoon smiled.

"Why did you never go into working with cars?" Soonyoung questioned.

"Been a mechanic is a shit job."

"No, not like that." Seokmin said. "Soonyoung meant, like, reviewing cars or something like that?"

"I'll be 50 by the time I manage it, and, besides, I have a job as it is that can buy me a mark II Jag. I count my blessings, and, what is it Josh says?" Jihoon replied. "He is who last shall be first? Well, in a mark II jag, he who is last shall be sideways drifting and smiling." As they came full-circle around the block where Minghao lived, Jihoon abruptly did a J-turn which made Seokmin and Soonyoung scream, tipping them sideways before backwardly upright. Both of them breathed heavily, staring at Jihoon, completely shocked. "How many cars from 1959 can you do that in now in 2020?" Jihoon inquired. 

-

Junhui slipped his tongue inside Minghao's mouth blissfully as the last car - Mingyu's Mazda hatchback - reversed out of the driveway. 

Minghao made a soft noise as Junhui's tonge rubbed across the roof of his mouth. "I think we're still good from last night." Minghao said, closing his eyes and smiling and as he tipped his head back so Junhui could mark up the skin just below and just behind his ear as he liked to do.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

-

When Wonwoo had got back to he and Mingyu's place, he had found a note in his letter-box.

I was wondering if you'd like to come out with me. Give me a call anytime

Woosung

His phone number was written underneath. Wonwoo felt himself burning alive inside as he hastily stashed the note in his pocket and went inside, Mingyu already ahead of him. It had been around six months since he had first really met Woosung, and how Woosung was there that day that Sylvia died to speak Welsh for them...Wonwoo knew Mingyu had wondered about that. Shame turned Wonwoo into ice inside. No, he couldn't.

Could he?

-

Minghao let out a breathy moan as he watched Junhui's head bob up and down in his lap. "Oh, God, keep going..." Minghao's head tipped back as the sensations became heavier, and he tried not to get into the state of coming down Junhui's throat. He didn't really like it if Junhui did it to him, so he tried to replicate that. But, without Minghao realizing, his legs gave one last tremble on the bed and his release absolutely poured down Junhui's throat. While Minghao gasped and couldn't believe what he'd just done Junhui kept sucking him off, milking him out, cleaning, taking him through the after-effects of the release.

-

When Mingyu had gone outside to water the weeping cherry trees that grew around by the front door, Wonwoo had called Woosung and had set the date for later that night and the time for half seven. Wonwoo's heartbeat thumped beneath his skin wildly. It was something he could not help. With it came this ethereal feeling or doing something for himself, but, a much different matter to anyone decision before. He was choosing life here.

No wonder his heart and other organs were doing backflips.

-

"Oh, fucking Christ." Junhui's nails clawed up and down Minghao's back as Minghao rode him roughly and deeply. Their panted breaths came out across each other's mouths as Minghao's nail dug painfully but wonderfully into Junhui's shoulders, their noses and foreheads pressed but slipping against each other, the two of them fucking like pagans.

The places that Junhui hit inside of him, the way that Junhui moved when he was inside of him, Minghao couldn't help the way he felt, and the way that the sex made him feel.

This was what every human being on Earth wanted; this was what every human being competed for but so rarely achieved.

It was beyond what anyone could describe.

Minghao's skin was on electrical fire, zinging brightly whenever Junhui touched him and zinging even harder from the constant touch of Junhui's hands and body on and up against his. The temperature of his physical body had gone through the roof; Minghao felt like he had a fever, and the only thing really keeping him with it was the startling but sensual sharp pain of Junhui's fingernails clawing the skin across his back and shoulders and the sensation of Junhui's member moving within him. 

It got him sent to perfect places.

"Why did we never hook up before, this is brilliant!" Minghao said down to Junhui, his head slumping down onto the crook of Junhui's shoulder and neck as Junhui began to help him, thrusting up his hips as Minghao still ground down on him as he rode him. 

"You were always been an arsehole." Junhui answered. Minghao laughed, his skin sweaty and so hot that it was almost painful, everything in his body stretched tight and hot and close. \- Wonwoo waited for Woosung in the restaurant for fifteen minutes, and, in the meantime, he did a Telegraph cross-word. He looked up from it as he heard the sound of Woosung's Mustang, still at least two blocks away. He smiled to himself. A waiter came over to him and Wonwoo told him to come back in five minutes, the second diner just sounded in his V8 down the road. When Woosung finally came through the doors, Wonwoo considered it considerate that Woosung had the grace to blush and apologise. He was wearing a suit, and, Wonwoo was pleased to see it was a work suit and not a purpose evening one. Even it was, it wasn't a problem. But Wonwoo liked Woosung just as he come. "What's it called where...you know those people who have a fetish for sex but to do it while smoking?" Wonwoo put to him. Woosung looked stuck for a moment. Wonwoo tapped his pen against his temply. "Capanolgnia something - something like that." He said. He marked it down in the newspaper. "Are you into that?" Woosung quipped. Wonwoo slid his glasses down his nose an attractive fraction. "Are you into that?" Wonwoo asked, looking at Woosung over the top of them. "Let's blame the Telegraph." Wonwoo held up the newspaper for evidence. Woosung smiled widely. "You are the only person I have ever met that does a crossword while waiting for a date." Woosung told Wonwoo lowly. Wonwoo's organs twisted pleasurably and tightly. "And how do you like it?" Wonwoo remarked. Woosung grinned. "Charming." Wonwoo tucked the newspaper inside his leather work bag, and he settled about for the evening with Woosung. Wonwoo didn't eat a great deal, and neither Woosung, but they both drunk as much as they could without getting hammered, and, in Woosung's case, over the legal driving limit. Which was scarcely much. "Would you like to come back to -" Woosung was about to invite Wonwoo back to his home for a nightcap, but Wonwoo already knew what he was going to say and answered in. "Yes." Wonwoo said frankly. He had waited months for this. "Absolutely, yes."


	21. TWENTY-ONE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wonwoo finally has Woosung's body, Jihoon begins to fall in love in a cardiology unit, Junhui freaks out about Minghao still needing Sylvia and as Jihoon puts Junhui in his place, his body can't keep up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Would have updated yesterday but my tech didn't work *laughing* what do you think of it so far? So much sex is to come for you thirst one and affairs for you lonely ones

Wonwoo took his shirt up over his head as Woosung's hands held onto his hips. His chest now naked, Woosung roughly pulled Wonwoo back in and kissed him for a few moments before they just took their clothes of seperately, something easier to do. But, when they were down, the weight of their world at the moment hit Wonwoo. His arms subconciously wrapped around himself as he glanced down at his own naked body and then at Woosung's. Woosung walked the two or three steps towards him, and his hands curved over Wonwoo's shoulders. 

"What are you thinking?" Woosung said to him. Wonwoo ducked his down to the ground, and Woosung pulled him back up again. 

"I think I might be terrible at this." Wonwoo said quietly. Suddenly, Woosung grinned widely.

"Oh, you poor thing." He chuckled softly. "Hey," He pushed some of Wonwoo's hair back from his face. "I thought you went off me for a minute."

Wonwoo smiled. "Wouldn't dream of it..." He closed his eyes only very briefly, leaning his head into Woosung's touch like a cat for a moment before shifting forward a only very tiny amount and kissing Woosung again. "We can do whatever you want." Wonwoo said to him. "Whatever you want..."

"I want to suck you off." Woosung told Wonwoo. Wonwoo's skin shivered with delight, running underneath.

"Oh, fuck, yes." Wonwoo watched Woosung, his mouth open ever so slightly, his lips wet with he and Woosung's spit and flushed from heat from when they had kissed. Woosung licked a small stripe across Wonwoo's abdomen and bit into the soft, hard skin there, Wonwoo's body tight and fatless. Wonwoo raised himself up onto his elbow and watched the unbelieveable sight as Woosung's mouth covered the head of his cock before sliding down on him. Wonwoo's head fell back with a moan, his knees raised and either side of Woosung with his feet flat on the bed, his toes curling in tightly.

As Woosung sucked him off, Wonwoo couldn't help but thrust his hips upwardly into Woosung's mouth. He couldn't recall ever feeling this way before in his life, and, he had never experienced anything before - anyone before - that had made him feel this high from the start. 

The feelings of the sex washed over Wonwoo, tight and hot and wet and wonderful, but, he was nowhere near coming and he wondered if Woosung expected him to release into his mouth and down his throat.

"Can you go harder?" Wonwoo asked Woosung as Woosung's mouth made the faintest, faintest pop as it came off Wonwoo's length. The look that Woosung gave him made Wonwoo's skin electrified as the older man's body moved up and over him to make him his own.

-

NEXT MORNING:

"Mr Li?"

Jihoon and three other men - all aged over seventy - looked up from their books, phones or feet as the nurse in the hospital's cardiology unit called out a name from a paper-board.

She chuckled. "Oh, dear, I'm so sorry; it will be the young one please."

Jihoon smiled to let her know it was fine, and he walked along the hall with her. He had seen her twice before. And, he didn't quite know if she knew that he knew, but she was also a ballet dancer. When he had stayed a couple of overnights in hospital, when Soonyoung and Seokmin had gone off to sleep and had slept like the dead, he had woken up a few times and through half-lids had seen this particular nurses practicing bar footwork on the receptionist counter and then, futher up, the triage counter. Her body moved gracefully as she simply walked and went about her tasks in the hospital.

Jihoon felt quite warm towards her.

Her name was Madeleine, so, everyone called her Maddie. Jihoon almost wanted to ask her why she had a European first name, but, no, that wasn't apropriate.

Madeleine was wearing dark blue nurses slacks and blouse uniform with a fitted cream top underneath with black spots over it. She wasn't a ulzzang beauty, but any means. Her thick bone structure and thick lips and thick black hair almost - almost - lended her appearence to her being of Polynesian descent rather than Korean.

But Jihoon really liked her.

As much was apropriate.

"Doctor. Qi will see you now." Madeleine smiled as she held open a door for Jihoon who was wheeling his tank behind him. "I'll come and get you when you're done there to get fitted for your moniter."

Oh, dear God, Jihoon thought to himself. As Madeleine swung around them and Doctor. Qi greeted Jihoon in his assessment clinic, Madeline rather large breasts jiggled about. She was thin and utterly sexy upon European standards, rather like that Nigella Lawson woman, but Jihoon could quite clearly imagine everyone thinking "fat" when they saw her, rather than, "What a spectacular set of tits - the best I've ever come across in my life!"

-

"So, how does that feel?" Madeleine checked the position of the moniter on Jihoon's hip and the stick on patches on his ribs and chest.

"All good." Jihoon said to her. He had to look up at her. He barely came up to her shoulder. He could imagine all of his mates having an absolute fucking laugh over this. Have a crush on the Amazon woman, Hoonie? Jihoon imagined one of them saying in his head. Yeah, yeah, now fuck off, Jihoon responded.

"You're the smallest accountant I've ever met." Madeleine smiled. When he had first come into hospital, Madeleine had been the one in charge of checking all the machines he was connected up to, and, her small talk had always been a nice sight with her heavy monolidded eyes and her earth-defying cheekbones.

"And I can promise for you to give you to the smallest bill once I've done your accounts." Jihoon joked. To his internal delight, Madeleine laughed at that.

"You know, genuinely, I'll have to take you up on that." She straight the hem of his shirt and jumper and then stood back. "Yes, still very handsome."

Jihoon blushed a little bit.

"Oh, dear me, what am I doing?" Madeleine smiled again, her hands touching her cheeks. "I'm holding you up! I'm so sorry..."

"No." Jihoon said, and he meant it. "Not at all."

-

Junhui was halfway down the stairs of he and Minghao's house when he heard Minghao talking away so softly but freely - a day just with the volume turned down low - but, Junhui couldn't hear the sound of anyone else in the home. 

"Yeah, I know, right? It's so dumb but he does it..." Minghao laughed softly. Junhui wondered if he was on the phone. Junhui crept down the stairs a little bit more and was careful of them not to creak. He looked around the corner of the staircase ever so slightly and his heart jumped up into his throat in a way that nearly floored him. As Minghao went about making the tea-pot ready for when Junhui got up he talked to nobody there at all, but, it was though as someone was there and answering him. He smiled and laughed and went on, and Junhui felt dread flood his body. 

As soon as he thought was apropriate and after a agonizing breakfast with Minghao in which Junhui glued a over-bright smile on his face and his tone too soft and careful of the unstable situation, he called Jihoon and asked if he could come around.

-

"And so fucking what if Minghao still needs her?" Jihoon's eyes blazed looking at Junhui who he found pathetic. He was off the oxygen, but, Junhui nearly regretted getting Jihoon into a state that would have him put back on it. He noticed a little computer like device on Jihoon's hip, and he wondered what the hell it was. Either way, when he first came through Jihoon's front door, the screen was blank and two little green buttons glowed underneath. Now, four orange ones glowed and the screen was illuminated white with black text writing. Junhui knew he had created a massive issue, but, the more Jihoon spoke, the angrier Junhui himself got. "He fucking loved her, you idiot."

"Yet she killed herself because she was a retard." Junhui snapped bitterly.

Jihoon looked at Junhui blankly and silently for a second before he absolutely did his nut. "She killed herself because she didn't want to go through months of suffering radiation and cancer drugs and chemotherapy to still die. She would still have died. You don't fucking get it because you're dumb, Junhui. Look at me if I had a heart-attack; I wouldn't want to be a vegetable in a chair for the rest of my life or on life-support. I'd want to die."

"But -" Junhui tried to cut in as he saw six red lights now glowing on the little device on Jihoon's hip and the black script on the white illuminated screen turn dark red and flash on and off warning. 

"No!" Jihoon roared. "Grow the fuck up, Jun! Did you really think Minghao got get over it in five months? It's going to take him years to get over - fucking years! And, then, it'll be there for the rest of his life! What, you can't handle that? So fucking what if you can't handle that! For fuck's sake, he went to the other side of the world to meet her family and the place where she come from. How can you not fucking understand something so simple? He loved her!"

And never will he do that for me, Junhui thought just as Jihoon made a choking sound and collapsed to the ground, blood spilling out of his mouth and nose and the little device on his hip now singing a little tune before the sound of a phone ringing went through the house.

Junhui got Jihoon's phone and saw that it read, "Hospital".

He called it in.


	22. TWENTY-TWO

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jihoon starts to get better with the help of the sweet-natured Madeleine, Soonyoung and Seokmin have a bone to pick with Junhui, and Minghao thinks back to his time in Wales in wake of Junhui's stupid behavior,

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally we have a update :) I hope you enjoy it, for there is plenty more to come

"And if you don't think it's a crime you can come along with me..."

Jihoon knew it was Madeleine. He just did. Her voice sounded lovely.

-

"I'll break your fucking jaw." Soonyoung growled at Junhui darkly in the hallway of the hospital as Junhui walked down it to see Junhui. Junhui hadn't come in the ambulance with Jihoon, but, had arrived at the hospital via on the city's underground trains. It seemed that Seokmin and Soonyoung were the first ports of call, and, no one else seemed to see Soonyoung rough at Junhui. There were a few nurses around in the blue-walled and black-carpeted hallways, but, apart from that, there was no one else. As Junhui went, repentive and sick, into Junhui's private room, Seokmin punched him squarely in the face before kicking him in the ribs, and a nurse with Polynesian-like features and a name-tag that read "Madeleine" quietly did not a thing to help Junhui at all.

-

"This has got to stop happening." Seungcheol looked down at the sleeping Jihoon ashen-faced. Jeonghan didn't look too well either. But, then, Jihoon was the shittest of them all.

"Do they know how it happened?" Jeonghan asked Soonyoung.

"They put a moniter on him this morning to measure how he was doing and, at about ten 'o' clock, he collapsed and the alarm went off." Soonyoung said, sitting in a chair on the opposite side of Jihoon's bed. Jihoon lay half on his side, facing Seungcheol and Jeonghan. Jihoon's skin was pale enough that his translucent green veins bubbling beneath the surface. Jeonghan's eyes locked onto the main vein that ran on the underside of Jihoon's wrist.

-

Several hours later, Jihoon woke up but he was very weak. The heart palpitations hadn't done him as much damage as stress, on-going fatuige, medication dependence and then dropped hormone, blood cell and insulin levels had. Soonyoung lay tucked up cosily beside Jihoon in his hospital bed. "Hoshi?" Jihoon mumbledly asked.

"Yeah, mate?" Soonyoung said down to Jihoon, Jihoon's head on his shoulder. 

"Do you like my car?" Jihoon eyelids slid down sleeplessly.

"Even though it's full of the ghosts of pensioners past, yes, I think it's expensive and classic and intelligent." Soonyoung replied. Seokmin got a case of the giggles, but his eyes were a bit wet. Of all things, Jihoon was concerned about what Soonyoung thought of that bloody Mark II Jaguar. 

-

Minghao sniffed deeply and took in a deep breath. He hadn't been able to help it. Seokmin had rang him earlier, but, only horus later had it really hit him.

He couldn't believe Junhui. How could Junhui be so stupid?

But, then, how could he - Minghao - be so stupid?

Minghao pressed the heels of his hands to his wet eyes. What the hell was he going to do when Junhui came home? Minghao didn't want to turn him away and kick him out - again - but that couldn't be let down without vicious, vicious, fucking vicious retort.

Jihoon could have died.

Minghao knew that as far as his being went he most certainly had to get better than this man within his own skin, and he just couldn't not too, because, otherwise, the whole world - his whole world - would let him go. 

Minghao took in a deep breath and looked upwardly around his bedroom before looking down to his lap. He was getting used to Junhui getting off to sleep beside him...

-

NORTH WALES, MONTHS AGO:

Sylvia's main friends were men - by chance - but she had a few friends who were women. None of them were horrible in any way; they were all attractive - reasonable to very much so - and they had all been accomdating and tolerant and kind to Minghao without suffocating the values of their religion and culture and race, and, without suffocating him and frightening him. 

He had been in Cardiff with one of Sylvia's friends, a twenty-four year old young man - extremely good lucking, he made Minghao's stomach twist in knots inside despite having Junhui ever so loosely in his life - called Robat. Everyone called him Robby.

They had been in a 1994 Leyland Mini and it had broken down on a bridge - like a minature of London bridge - over a area of Cardiff - a river - that Minghao couldn't get his head around.

The native language was absolutely fucking mental. There was no way you could get to grips with it unless you were one of the natives born.

Robat did the most terrible thing. He trick a old Christian American couple on holiday into walking three blocks to a rockabilly festival; the irony was, there indeed was a festival on, and, indeed, the red-neck Kansas couple were probably delighted by their flush of sensual youth. But, Robat spoke with a lilting South Irish accent - "So they can never say a Welshman did 'em any wrong." He later explained to Minghao - before stealing their 1970's Mercedes through a trick known by anyone involved in the motor trade - apparently - by breaking in through the boot and folding the back seats down.

"You know something that no one who is Welsh and of our generation can't manage?" Robat had said to Minghao through a translation app on his phone.

Minghao had shrugged. "What?" He had said in English. Robat had grinned wickedly.

"You can't sit over a glass of wine, you can't attract beautiful women, and, you have no idea how to be schemeing cunts." Robat had jumped neatly into the driver's seat and had stuck his head and upper half out of the driver's window, his tongue waggling about freely and head-banging with winking naughtily and immensely attractively at Minghao. "Come on, lad, get in, there's a moose loose aboout this hoose!"

-

...And how Junhui would carry on about such a little thing like that. 

The car hadn't been damaged, and, Robat had sent it back to the same parking space they had stolen it from - and, yes, indeed, they had gone and bloody well stolen it. 

Minghao didn't think they did such a bad thing either, when, a week later, the American man was arrested for trying to glass a woman in a pub over a racial dispute. Which meant that she was most likely a prostitute and his inner red-neck came out.

Minghao promised himself and all the Earth around him that tomorrow, he would go and visit Jihoon, and he'd tell him all about he and Robat in Cardiff. Minghao wished he could talk to Robat right now. Welsh people were truly their own race, and, the world was too dumb and too - to put in Sylvia's words, "a bunch of fake and disgusting fucking cunts" - to realise that, and, then, have enough respect and grace for them to leave them to their own devices as they had done so for hundreds of thousands of years.


	23. TWENTY-THREE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Madeline kisses Jihoon for the first time in secret from the Matron with her enormous pantaloons, Minghao can't help it as he desperately craves and fucks Junhui's body. Joshua masturbates downstairs to the sound of Minghao and Junhui fucking in the shower, a cardinal sin hit none so high as Joshua waits for Minghao to "get ready" so they can visit Jihoon in hospital

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Has anyone heard I LIKE AMERICA  
> & AMERICA LIKES ME by The 1975? It's fucking incredible!

"I like your voice." Jihoon whispered huskily - result to his dry throat - to Madeleine as she came in and checked his IV drip and about ten other things.

"What was that?" She leant down so she could hear him. Soft trendles of her thick and naturally voliminous black hair touched Jihoon's nose and cheekbone and chin even though her hair was tied back out of the way of her patients. His dry lips just brushed up against her ear as he spoke again.

"I like it when you sing. You sound nice." He told her.

Little pinks spots of colour came into Madeleine's smiling face as she straightened up slightly. "That's lovely of you to say." 

Jihoon felt his skin sear as bright as the sun as her big, light-pink lips pressed a kiss against his cheek.

"Oh, bugger, I've got colour on you." Madeleine chuckled softly, and the edge of her sleeve was pulled up over the heel of her palm and she swiped the mark away. "I'm the only one that wears pink lipstick. If Matron comes in and sees that she'll get her enormous pantaloons into a twist."

Jihoon smiled and went to say something, but he found himself looking at Madeleine's delightfully huge chest as she straightened up a little to look at his heart moniter.

"Well, won't you look at that?" She whispered, one of hands intertwining with Jihoon's.

The machine had read Jihoon's heart speeding up and his blood pressure staying at a safe level, indicating the rush that had gone through him when Madeleine had kissed him.

-

Minghao woke up shocked. He had been so deeply asleep that he hadn't noticed in the slightest that Junhui had come in, stripped, and had got into bed with him. Junhui was holding him in his arms, and, despite that, Minghao didn't actually want to seperate his body away from Junhui's. The warmth of Junhui's body flooded into Minghaos and filled up every square centimeter of his skin, internally and above. It wasn't something physical as it was what anybody else would describe as spiritual.

Describe it as love.

Minghao's arm slid comfortably beneath Junhui's neck, and, knowing that this man beside him was the one who caused Jihoon's attack of ill-health, Minghao pressed his mouth to Junhui's, kissing him awake. 

"Hao..." Junhui softly mumbled, his eyes coming over. Minghao's other hand curved around Junhui's face and beneath his jaw-line, not breaking loose from wanting him, needing him, not being able to be without him.

"Can I ride you?" Minghao asked. "Or suck you off...anything..."

"Minghao, I -" Junhui began but Minghao pressed harder down onto him, slipping his tongue into Junhui's mouth and the arm around his neck, the hand going into his hair, while Minghao's hand on his slid slid down to grasp at Junhui's naked length tucked away between them.

"I need you, I need you, I need you..." Minghao whispered breathlessly, moving up over Junhui's body, lying between his legs.

-

"When was the last time you had your motorcycle out?" Joshua peered inside Minghao's garage.

"About a year." Minghao answered after he had a think about it. "Yeah, that'd be right. About a year."

"You and Chan could go out." Joshua laughed. "See who can get to 180 miles an hour first or whatever it is you weirdo's do."

It was a universally known fact that motorcyclists had a different psychological set-up to car-drivers. Their constant death-thrill, for example.

"Yeah, and then we anal-fuck each others partners over the bike." Minghao joked with a wicked grin. He saw something flicker on Joshua's face before he laughed.

"You just got horny at that, didn't you?" Minghao beamed widely. Joshua ducked his head, but his face was very, very red. Minghao didn't push him too much.

"What about you and Junhui?" Joshua said. Minghao grinned again. "Yes, I was thinking you were carrying around this aura of having got laid." Joshua mocked him much in the manner of David Attenborough narratating a nature documentary.

"Four times before you turned up this morning." Minghao held up his fingers. Joshua's mouth fell open in shock before he started cackling away gleefully.

"You are fucking unbelieveable." Joshua hugged Minghao but as he pulled away brushed off his shirt and jacket. Minghao rolled his eyes.

"You live with Jeonghan, trust me, your covered in gay germs." Minghao remarked.

"Yeah, I always felt sorry for Vernon living with Seungkwan." Joshua answered in much the same tone. They both lost it. 

"I'm going to have a shower but then I'm going to go to the hospital in town to see Minghao; do you want to come with me?" Minghao quipped. Joshua nodded.

"I'll wait downstairs." Joshua decided.

"Feel free to raid the pantry." Minghao opened up the door from the garage into the house.

Joshua laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Four times this morning, eh? I thought you'd be like a sheep now." He said just before he stepped inside to the house.

Minghao frowned. "What?"

"Oh, you know, that things they get..." Joshua snapped his fingers. "Prolapse." He pointed at Minghao. 

Minghao plucked one of his spanners he kept for the matienence for his motorcycle off a cabinet exactly where he had put it about a year ago, now covered in dust and dirt, and, nonetheless, tried to bash Joshua's head in with it, pulling the older man back into the garage so there was no chance of his lovely house needing to be "patched up".

-

"Are you having a heat or something like an animal that I don't know about?" Junhui put to Minghao while Minghao was more intent on getting fucked high on and with Junhui's body.

Minghao dragged he and Junhui's naked bodies beneath the scalding hot water on the shower and turned around to face the wall, his hands pressing up against the charcoal-toned tile. Junhui groaned softly, his wet hands slipping around Minghao's wet ribs and hip, pressing his body up against Minghao's. Minghao moaned but bit his tongue remembering poor Joshua downstairs waiting for him as Junhui rubbed his hips against against his backside and Junhui's quickly hardening length slipped between his cheeks and rubbed directly over his arsehole.

"Oh, Jun, just get in me, please." Minghao begged him quietly but as loud as he could with the noise of the water running overhead, his stomach knotting tightly and his heartbeat thudding heavily in every single synapse of his living body.

-

Joshua sunk down as far as he could on the couch in Minghao's sitting room, shoving his fingers into his ears. He knew from experience that the sound of the shower and the steam-fan running in the bathroom suffocated all noise, but, only for the person inside. Inside the bathroom, they could hear nothing else, but, he, outside the bathroom, could hear everything.

Why don't you just listen to it? A soft voice in the back of Joshua's head murmured. It reminded him of Jeonghan, but, it wasn't like that. Have some fun. They don't know. Do what you want, because it is what you want

Almost ashamed of himself, but unable to help it either way, Joshua leant back against the arm of the couch, half sitting-up, half lying-down, Joshua unzipped his jeans and slid them and his underwear to just above the middle of his thighs and fished his member out of his clothes. Joshua tipped his head back and closed his eyes, listening to the sounds of Junhui and Minghao genuinely trying to be quiet with their words and their breaths and the sounds that emitted helplessly from them, but, the sound of the wet skin as their bodies moved together...

Joshua pressed a hand over his mouth himself before he could make any sound as his hand ran up and down his own length, pre-release gently leaking naturally from the tip, lubricating everything as he went along. He dragged his thumb hardly through his slit at his tip everytime he went along, and pleasured, desire-entranced warmth flooded through his body. Oh God. Oh yes.

Very, very faintly, and oh-so-distantly, a image of Jeonghan floated around in his head. One day when Joshua had come in to wake him up - had it been New Years Day, or something? - and Jeonghan had been lying on his back, shirtless, with the covers pushed down around his hips and red scratch marks down his chest due to getting set upon by then next door's much over-excited blue heeler guard dog.

But, much more strongly, was the image of Junhui and Minghao fucking precisely on the shower-mat and the tiles. Joshua just about got it perfect and right in his head from what they said and what they sounded like. Junhui and Minghao on their knees together but so close they melded into one, the only times that Minghao felt right was when Junhui's length was buried deep inside of him and his arms were around him and Junhui was kissing his neck as they moved together, the high of the sex washing down like the hand of God over the two of them.

More sounds came out and more words were whispered but not whispered low enough. 

Joshua clearly saw in his mind as his hips bucked up and down into his own fist, slick with his own pre-release, Junhui still inside Minghao's pulsing, wet walls moving the two of them over, his stomach and chest against Minghao's back as he came to fuck him in the position of animals, murmuring into his Minghao's ear as Minghao's head touched the tiled floor and he and Junhui's entwined hands stretched out together. 

"When are you going to come, oh fucking God, Josh'll be wondering what's going on..." Junhui said to Minghao.

Oh, don't worry, I'm fucking fine, Joshua thought to himself, working his cock harder, and wishing, just for once, that it wasn't so hard for him to come; it took at least twenty minutes of intense work for the quickest speed.

-

"Oh, this isn't going to work, we're going to have to leave it for now."

"No, let me try something else.

"Ok, just -"

"Get on your hands and knees and close your eyes."

Minghao cried out as suddenly he came. He couldn't help it. He looked under his arm at Junhui, who was breathing heavier than normal, but was smiling relievedly, a dazed but happy expression in his eyes. He held an object up. It was one piece of the ribbed shower rod. 

"Double penetration, eh?" He grinned.


	24. TWENTY-FOUR

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joshua and Minghao begin a sexual affair in wake of Junhui's inability to accept that Minghao will never quite get over Sylvia and her death, and that Jeonghan will never be strong or mature enough to stop fucking around and give something concrete. Nonetheless, Minghao tries to support Junhui though he doesn't forgive him, and Joshua tries to love Jeonghan and remember what it was like when they first met so he doesn't hate him and they don't ruin Seungcheol's existence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didn't see this one coming, did you? *immensely proud*

"What are you thinking about?" Jeonghan asked Joshua.

"Hm?" Joshua lifted his head from his fist and looked around to Jeonghan on the other side of the dark blue fabric-upholstered couch. The only lights that were on were the television, two lamps on the table, and the lights over the island bench in the adjoined kitchen and sitting room and dining room in the apartment. 

"You've got the biggest smile on your face." Jeonghan said softly. Something about the way the light caught his eyes and his lips moved as he spoke made Joshua heat up. "Tell me what it is."

Joshua took a leaf out of Minghao and Junhui's book. "You won't believe it."

"Oh, yeah?" Jeonghan shifted closer to Joshua on the couch. Joshua's heart twisted up vibrantly. 

"I went with Minghao to see how Hoonie's doing but I heard he and Junhui having sex in the shower -"

"Oh, fucking hell." Jeonghan rubbed his hands over his face, laughing. "Yeah, Shua, exactly what I wanted to hear."

Joshua looked at Jeonghan - and specifically the curve of Jeonghan's lips soon revealed again - for too long. A second after it hit Joshua who looked away, he wondered - knowing deep down - that Jeonghan had noticed it.

"Shua?" Jeonghan said.

Joshua quickly excused himself, saying he needed a drink from the fridge. He wasn't lying, not really. His mouth and throat were as dry as carpet. Joshua didn't feel awkward or regretful or ashamed inside. He felt high.

When Joshua came back over to the couch, Jeonghan had shifted back over to his side.

"Where's Seungcheol?" Joshua asked.

"Went to see his brother and the brother's girlfriend." As Jeonghan answered, his gaze settled as equally faintly and intently upon the parts of Joshua that he wanted to take unto him. 

"Close your eyes." Joshua whispered. Jeonghan did. Joshua's lungs got caught up and tripped over the simple art of breathing at the sight of Jeonghan laying back slight against the arm and the back of the couch. Joshua moved up over Jeonghan's body and pressed his lips over Jeonghan's, and, a visceral flood of sense and pleasure and brightness went through Joshua as - just before he kissed Jeonghan as though it truly was the first time - Jeonghan's head had moved from the slight side angle it had been on, and, his lips had parted instead of been drily stuck together as they might have been any other time.

"Is it ok?" Joshua looked to Jeonghan as he pulled away gently. Jeonghan's half-lidded eyes fluttered open, and he gazed up at Joshua. Joshua expected Jeonghan to kick him off, to tell him to stop despite all the things they had fucked around together with in the past.

"Yes, yes!" Jeonghan said hurriedly. Joshua dragged down Jeonghan's hips along the couch with one hand until he was properly below him, and, though an accident but not entirely in it's sincerity, Joshua rolled them off the couch and to the ground with a massive thud and a "Oh, fucking shit!" squeak out of Jeonghan.

-

EARLIER THAT DAY:

"You're not going to have a go at me?" Minghao asked. They sat in the hospital car-park in Seungcheol's car that Seungcheol had let Joshua borrow for that morning. 

"About what?"

"Junhui causing Jihoon getting sick."

"What?"

Oh, shit, Minghao thought to himself. "Junhui went around to see Jihoon about something and they must have had a fight about something because it was when he was there that Jihoon collapsed and the heart moniter of his just about went off the scale -"

"Ok, and this happened?"

"And considering Jihoon is very, very seriously ill and that I'm a whore for the guy who caused it..." Minghao trailed off. Joshua smiled a little bit. He put his hand over Minghao's knee. 

"Everyone's a bastard at one stage in their life, and, as of lately, you really have succeeded at it." Even though Joshua put Minghao down, he touched him, and the touch kept Minghao where he was. Minghao really expected Joshua to really have the shits with him, flame tearing out his lungs as he went ballistic at him for his behaviour and then on behalf of Junhui. Joshua's hand crept higher up Minghao's thigh. Minghao would have wondered what on earth Joshua was doing, but, his head was empty. The only thing he could focus on was Joshua's beautiful face and the way his eyes look down at his hand on Minghao's thigh, and the way his lips parted slightly. 

When their eyes met, it was electricity. 

"We'll see him and stay as long as he wants us, then we go back to your house." Joshua said to him. Minghao nodded.

Junhui was working late, as he always did when the magazine he worked for was close to it's once a month publication date. 

"Please." Minghao said.

-

As soon as they were back inside, things exploded beyond any control. Their clothes were dumped along the hallway and the ended up only just making it up the stairs and into Minghao's bedroom. Minghao had been going to change the sheets, but, there was no point at that moment. 

Joshua pushed Minghao down onto the bed and moved over the top of him, his hands going into Minghao's hair before his mouth pressed over Minghao's desperately. 

"God, I need this." Joshua moaned softly as Minghao's bucked up against his before rolling them over. Minghao straddled Joshua's hips, and they stared at each other breathlessly. 

"You're so beautiful."

"For years I've been thinking that I wanted Jeonghan or Tae-ri or someone else that I'd come to meet, but, oh..." Joshua trailed off, his head tipping back as Minghao still listened to him but kissed his neck. "I don't think I do."

One of Minghao's hands came up to touch the other side of Joshua's neck that his mouth didn't. Not too hard at first, Minghao tightened his hand around Joshua's throat, his thumb pressed into the crook between Joshua's jaw and throat and his fingers at the back of Joshua's neck as he started breathplay that he wasn't quite sure if Joshua was in to but was going to try nonetheless. As Joshua's first not entirely airless gasp came from the contact, Minghao's teeth grazed over a patch on Joshua's neck before licking over it and kissing it. Minghao pressed his thumb down for a slow five seconds and then released as Joshua lay beneath him and his cock grew harder in his jeans. Minghao bit the top of one of Joshua's ears before straight back up slightly enough to slip his tongue through Joshua's parted lips as Minghao pressed down on his throat again.

"You like this?" Minghao murmured, his lips moving along Joshua's jawline.

Joshua gave a barely discernable and wheezed, "Yes." Minghao glanced at Joshua's eyes momentarily and saw knowingly that Joshua wasn't in pain or discomfort. His pupils had dilated enormously, his lips kiss-swollen, and his skin was flushed warm and bright; he was beautiful.

More beautiul than Junhui.

"Do you want to be inside of me?" Minghao leant down again, his lips barely brushing up against Joshua's ear. 

"Yes -" It was all able Joshua was able to whisperily manage as the pressure continued on his throat and he felt himself leaking inside his clothes.

Minghao trailed a hand down Joshua's chest and stomach before three of his fingertips pressed down against the hard toned warmth of Joshua's abdomen.

"Do you like that?" Minghao whispered, chasing the press of his fingers so it wasn't the pads of hs fingertips pressing into Joshua's skin but the nails. "How about we do something else, first?"

Minghao slid down Joshua's body, taking his hand off from around Joshua's throat and took his length in his mouth. Joshua gasped and he sat himself up on his elbow to see Minghao's head bobbing up and down in his lap. A shudder ran through Joshua's bones and beneath the surface of his skin as Minghao's teeth grazed along his member before Minghao released it from his mouth and went back once more to straddle Joshua's hips.

"You take a really long time to get high, don't you?" Minghao mumured down to Joshua who was still sitting up on his elbows and was breathing heavily.

"Please tell me you do?" Joshua said. Minghao grinned. He ground down on Joshua's lap and Joshua released a breathy moan.

"We can do it over and over again...how many times you want." Minghao eased Joshua to be inside of him, Joshua's cock practically dripping with his own pre-release and the saliva from Minghao's mouth. Minghao wrapped his hands around Joshua's throat again, and, this time it was both of them. "Now." Minghao whispered before giving the first thrust onto Joshua, squeezing his neck.

-

Jeonghan's hands ran up Joshua's thighs to his hips and then his back to the top of his neck by the base of his skull, and Joshua pressed his nose to Jeonghan's temple.

"You want to come to bed with me?" Jeonghan asked Joshua, keeping the other man nice and close to him. 

They made out together on the floor.


	25. TWENTY-FIVE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Junhui receives a work promotion that has him heading to Australia for a fortnight, and Minghao gets Jeonghan to come and do some modeling for him. Jeonghan tries to have sex with Joshua but Joshua won't let him; in the meantime, Joshua and Minghao indulge in kniveplay sex, choking, general roughness, and bloodplay while Jeonghan is at the very start of a cross-dressing fetish

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As is mentioned in the summary for this chapter, rough sex, bloodplay, crossdressing, kniveplay, etc Enjoy :)

Minghao was just about to ring up a old friend that now worked at a music production company in Seoul when Junhui came home. His face as ash-complexioned.

"You won't believe what's happened." He said, dumping his bag and coat in the sitting room and collapsed onto the couch beside Minghao.

You've got the sack, Minghao thought silently. "What's happened?" He asked. Junhui looked at him, now seeming quite faint.

"I've got a massive fucking promotion." Junhui answered. Minghao hurriedly shut the lid of his laptop and put it on the floor beneath the couch so it couldn't be accidentally stepped on and he wrapped his arm around a very, very tired Junhui. 

"That's amazing!" He grinned at Junhui whose dead eyes gazed into his. "How high up did you go?" Minghao asked.

"I'm the assistant editor. So, like, second editor." Junhui's head slumped back against the couch and his eyes shut heavily. "And they want me to go to Australia for two weeks."

Minghao blinked. "What?" He said.

"You know how I said the magazine was started in Melbourne in 1993?" Junhui quipped. Minghao hummed. "Well, everything's still there and it's something about it been sold to another media group and the guy I'm the assistant editor too is a lech. He's screwed just about every girl on the planet. Even the ugly ones. He really puts himself around."

Minghao smiled. "You'll cope."

Junhui's eyes barely managed to open. "Yeah?" He mumbled.

"Yes." Minghao moved over and kissed his mouth.

While Junhui slept for hours into the night downstairs on the couch in the sitting room with his coat over him and the central heating bumped up a extra few degrees, Minghao went upstairs to make a phone call.

Minghao knew he really shouldn't have done it, but, he did it anyway. In some ways, he and Junhui were exactly alike. Destructive enough to ultimately deserve each other. 

"Jeonghan, I've got a proposition for you." Minghao said. "Would you come and do some modeling for me?" \- "Wasn't this Sylvia's place?" Jeonghan frowned, looking up at the house and studios across the road from Minghao and Junhui's residence. It was a very bleak day, but Minghao looked very happy. Minghao unlocked the front door of Sylvia's house with a warm colour on his cheekbones. Jeonghan wondered what Minghao was thinking. He just seemed...happy. "When I was in Wales I was in her will and I got everything she had." Minghao explained. "There was no point leaving it back to the tribe or her Father. Her Father hates South Korea. And in the will with some money was her house and studios." Jeonghan whistled lowly. "Fucking hell, Hao." when they got inside, Jeonghan lowered down his glasses and looked around. it was the first time he had ever been in Sylvia Jenkins house. it was quirky and antique and strange. "Doesn't it feel weird?" jeonghan asked minghao. Minghao glanced at him over his shoulder. "No." Minghao replied simply, honestly. They went upstairs to the studio on the second floor, and, Jeonghan's stomach knotted even tighter. all around the space things were left just as Sylvia had left them; a faerie-floss pink bra on the loor, paint now dried like conrete in a mixing bowl with paint-brushes, a half-finished canvas, a printer with paper been filled into it, a pair of ballet shoes tied around the door-handle of the door to the studios. this was her whole life. So, this was Sylvia Jenkins? "What are we going to do?" Jeonghan asked Minghao. Opaline winter sunlight came in through the open studio windows that had the remains of condensating frost on the frosted multi-panes. It was a style from the rest that Jeonghan had seen before via Joshua, but, he just had no way of describing it on his own terms or understanding it. It really, really wasn't his thing. Despite that, Minghao seemed to be in his element. "A project she was going to do with me if you don't mind." Minghao answered. He pulled a crumpled packet of cigarettes out of a pocket in his black jeans and lit up a smoke. Jeonghan hadn't seen Minghao smoke frequently before; there was nothing wrong with it, but, Jeonghan couldn't help believeing that the new habit was something to do with Sylvia Jenkins and Wales. Jeonghan wondered if the cigarettes Minghao was smoking were the same as Sylvia's. "Better tell me then." Jeonghan shifted some of his long silver hair out of his face and behind his ear. Minghao watched the gesture. "Yeah..." Minghao said softly, obviously half-thinking as they went along. "I think it'll work." \- EARLIER THAT MORNING: Jeonghan blinked sleepily up at Joshua's still resting form. It had just gone seven 'o' clock in the morning, and, in another fifteen minutes the alarm on the bedside table would go off to wake up Joshua. There was a thin panel of silver-luminescent light coming in either side of the edges of the curtains of the right side of the bedroom, and, it gave everything a feeling of serenity. Seungcheol snored on in the next room down the hall, loud enough to be noticed but not loud enough to be intrusive upon the peace. Jeonghan was held in Joshua's arms, his head and one of his hands on Joshua's bare chest. Neither of them were naked - Jeonghan in pyjama pants and shirt and Joshua in his pyjama pants, the shirt having come off last night when the maitenence tag on the back had been annoying him - and Jeonghan both appreciated it and hated it. He slipped his hand down the front of Joshua's trousers. Joshua's hips moved into Jeonghan's hand. Joshua's head tipped to the side, and his pretty eyes came open in half lids. He looked at Jeonghan. "Don't even think about it." He told him frankly. "Why not?" Jeonghan whispered to him. "One, I want to sleep, Two, Cheol is in the next room and would like to sleep, Three, have some manners." Jeonghan mouthed "ouch". "Bitch." he murmured. Joshua took Jeonghan's hand out from around his length. "You're not leaving your hand down there either." Joshua added. "At least get naked for me." Jeonghan pressed a kiss over one of joshua's nipples and pulled gently at the waistband of the trousers around Joshua's hips. "No, bugger off." Joshua rolled onto his side and went back to sleep he had never quite gotten out of. Jeonghan persisted, nonetheless. He pressed up against Joshua's back, his lips barely brushing over the top of Joshua's spine. One of Jeonghan's hands set itself over Joshua's hip and he gave the lightest pressure before letting go and doing the same thing again. Jeonghan pressed the tip of his tongue against the spot on Joshua's back where he had nearly kissed, and, he felt Joshua's body shudder. Joshua rolled back over to see Jeonghan. "I don't want to do it with you right now, this early in the morning, and with Cheol in the house trying to get some sleep." Joshua told him. Jeonghan kissed him. "Just let me do it." One of Jeonghan's hands curved lightly over Joshua's face, and, he pressed his thumb to Joshua's mouth, wondering if Joshua would cave and let him part his lips so Jeonghan could slip his tongue inside and at least have a decent kiss that morning if sex was out of the question. Jeonghan's breath stilled at the expression that came over Joshua's face. His eyes sank down to half-lids and his skin flushed with the lightest, lightest warmth as he visibly came under some sort of control by Jeonghan, or, he was just too gone. The whole aura reminded Jeonghan of when Joshua was a bit drunk one time, and, well, Jeonghan himself had tried to get a blowjob out of it. They had been sitting down somewhere - had it been Mingyu and Wonwoo's house? - and Joshua had lain across the couch with his head in Jeonghan's lap. His dreamy, far-out eyes that looked even more attractive seemingly than they usually did gazed intently as they could up at Jeonghan. "Why are you looking at me like that?" Joshua had asked him. Jeonghan remembered stroking down Joshua's face with the back of his fingertips, and the same expression on his face now the one back then. It made Jeonghan absolutely hot. Jeonghan's thumb nearly slipped inside Joshua's mouth but Joshua abruptly turned away from Jeonghan, the expression on his face lost in a second. It didn't matter. Jeonghan would remember it forever. \- "Oh fuck." Jeonghan looked at himself in the mirror, wearing the costume that Sylvia had first organized for Minghao, now to be worn on Jeonghan himself. It was a high-necked, long-sleeved, skin tight, ankle-length black jersey dress that gave a neo-Edwardian modernist style, and, incredibly, it didn't make him look like a man trying to be a woman, folding muscle and cock and tesosterone into a frock. His hair was just down around his shoulders like he had had it that morning, and he on no make-up or jewelry or shoes. There were a pair of black heels to wear just for the photos, and, incredibly, his feet had gotten into them, and, again, it didn't look like he was making the effort to create that androgony. Because, androgyny meant to look man and woman...but...he just looked female. Jeonghan couldn't believe it. "Your face doesn't have to be shown." Minghao offered to Jeonghan, mistaking his shock not about his appearence but at the gravity of the situation of having to be photographed in a frock. "You're kidding me." Jeonghan turned around and even the sight of his hips and legs and backside...it was utterly un-fucking-believeable. How could such a thing happen? How could such a thing be natural? "Lower half of your jaw?" Minghao gestured on his own face. "You know all our friends - including Josh and Cheol - look at Sylvia's...the website?" Jeonghan cut himself off knowing he was sounding too harsh, and, the reality was, he didn't intend to be harsh at all. "Sorry, just let me get my head around this." He turned away from the mirror to Minghao. "You've got her money, her house and that...are you taking over her...was this a business?" Minghao nodded. "Sylvie left me everything." "Jesus fucking Christ." Jeonghan ran his hands through his hair. "Yeah." Minghao acknowledged Jeonghan's remark. "And you want me to do this?" Jeonghan checked. "What if I fuck it up?" Minghao shook his head. "I don't think you will. It keeps on with the same aesthetic." "Which is?" Jeonghan asked. "Paganism, naturalism, tribalism, earthism, sexuality/sensuality based, mythologic, aesthetic, spiritual, neo-modern faith and belief and moralistic culture of the people who are inspired by it and were raised by it." Minghao explained after a few minutes in ways he thought he could manage it well enough. It was how Sylvia had described it. "Which is?" Jeonghan knew that Minghao well knew this wasn't really his expertise in the world. "Like nothing else on earth." Minghao half-smiled. "This is why pagans like money. They are the only people that can just do it like this because this is themselves and their world..." He snapped his fingers softly. "And you are?" Jeonghan asked. Minghao scoffed. "Fuck, no. If I was it would be racist and intrusive on someone elses native culture. That's fucked." He smiled softly. "But Sylvie was and that's what matters." His head tilted to the side softly. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to. I was just asking." He chucked his chin slightly at Jeonghan. "Gods wonder why you turned up then." \- "Got everything packed?" Minghao checked off Junhui. Junhui was going to go by himself on the train to the airport to head out to Australia for the next couple of weeks. Junhui had on his coat and shoes, ready to head out the door. Minghao could tell he wasn't quite right. "Yeah." Junhui tried to have some stamina, and even though he was smiling, he was nervous. He knew Minghao saw it. He looked around, trying to find things to say to Minghao. He wasn't really going to see his face for a long while after that. Junhui hadn't told Minghao out of the fear that Minghao would just go silent and cold, but, he might have to stay in Australia five weeks, not two. Junhui tried to make the moment important. "You'll be alright by yourself -?" He got halfway through checking but Minghao cut him off. "Oh, get a grip." Minghao said. "Of course I'll be fine. Lived without you before, can do it again." He crossed his arms and leant against the doorframe of their bedroom, but smiled so Junhui didn't get too cut. Something flickered in Junhui's eyes. Minghao wasn't able to have enough time to read it. "Come here." Junhui held out his arms for Minghao. Minghao rolled his eyes, and went in for a kiss, but his lips skimmed over Junhui's cheek as Junhui wrapped his arms around him and buried his face into the crook of Minghao's neck. Minghao's eyes widened. Oh. That's new. That was really new. "It'll be fine." Minghao said to Junhui. "Call you everyday." Junhui promised. "Whatever." Minghao wondered when Junhui was going to let him go, but, then, knew that even though it was a thought, it was too harsh. "Arsehole." Junhui murmured. "Yeah, I know, love." Minghao pressed his mouth against Junhui's neck. "If you're so worried, time'll fly." \- It was the weekend two days later before Minghao saw Joshua again. Things were even more urgent and electric and insatiable between the two of them. The moment that Minghao opened the front door, the two of them were breathless and flushed and desperate. Minghao wondered if he could let Joshua have it this time, having been thinking about the idea of lying down beneath Joshua and letting him bury himself deeply inside him. Joshua pushed Minghao up against the wall in the hallway while the door swung shut behind the two of them. One of Joshua's hands gripped hardly between Minghao's thighs and Minghao emitted a moan, his head tipping back against the wall. Joshua slammed his body back against the wall as he pushed forward just a few centimeters, and Minghao went absolutely high. Joshua's mouth pressed to Minghao's neck and he bit down desperately. Minghao felt that it went hard enough for him to bleed. He felt the gasp of Joshua's breath against his neck, and Joshua pulled back from the shock of what he'd done. Minghao looked at Joshua, his chest rising and falling heavily and his lips parted. "You look so cool." Minghao told Joshua as blood ran down his neck and touched the neck of his t-shirt before asorbing into the fabric. "I'm s -" Joshua went to apologise, but Minghao shook his head, drawing Joshua back to his body. They melded into one again, Joshua's apology letting Minghao take over him for a bit, Minghao's arms wrapping around Joshua's neck and rubbing his tongue over Joshua's before sucking it. Both of them were hard in their jeans and they slowly rubbed together as they made out, Minghao still pressed up against the wall. Minghao's body was hot and he felt dizzy out of absolute need. "Lets go." Minghao whispered, getting Joshua's arm. The two of them went upstairs.


	26. TWENTY-SIX

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Junhui gets rather taken with the Australian editor of his Magazine he's now assistant editor of, and, Joshua and Minghao's affair grows even more explicit as does Jeonghan's flourishing career. Wonwoo has a massive situation at work which delays Mingyu asking him what's going on with his love and sex life, Jeonghan is frustrated by high by lack of sexual response from Joshua, and Madeleine and Jihoon begin to date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally updated :) Chaos is to come for Seungcheol, Joshua, Jeonghan, Minghao, Junhui, Chan and Scandinavian lover Christine-Elene

"Ah!" Joshua moaned as the knife slit down the inside of his hip-bone. Minghao drew his index finger across the bleeding cut, momentarily cleaning it flawlessly, before putting the finger with Joshua's blood on it into his mouth and sucking the blood away into his system with a lick. The blood wasn't ghastly and coppery; it tasted sweet, like sugar in white tea.

Minghao dipped his head down and swiped his tongue over the cut, and, the slight pressure must have stung because another sound emitted from Joshua's throat. Minghao sucked on it and Joshua's hips helpless pushed up against Minghao's mouth. 

"Be patient." Minghao murmured. "We've got so much time."

Joshua shivered beneath Minghao's body.

-

The Australian editor was meeting Junhui at the Sydney airport. 

It was hot and sunny with a cool breeze. It was perfect weather, according to conversation around him. 

Junhui nearly crashed into a old couple in front of him as a voice called out his name, and, he saw the sight of the body that the voice belonged too.

Bloody, bloody, bloody hell.

Fuck.

"You look exactly like your picture." The woman smiled at him. She was tall and willowly and of unmistakeable Italian descent with thick black hair, dark olive skin, thick black eyebrows, huge dark eyes, big lips, ok, a rather large nose, neolithic square bone-structure, endlessly long legs, lovely tits, lovely waist, and, very nice shoes. She was about forty-two, Junhui guessed. She had the lightest, lightest accent. She wasn't pretty, and not beautiful; she was beautiful, and, more importantly and more profoundly in her case, striking. She was wearing skinny white jeans, a light-pink blouse and matching high-heels with a black leather sunhat and chanel sun-glasses hooked onto the neckline of her blouse. She had a very nice perfume on. She hugged Junhui and kissed him on both cheeks before cupping his face with long-fingered hands with natural talon-like nails and gazed into his eyes directly.

Bloody fucking hell.

"Vanessa Morrabito." She introduced herself. Junhui didn't quite know what she was saying.

"Come with me." She held out both her hands, and, with his free one, Junhui took hold of one of hers. It seemed to be what she wanted, and, at the end of the day, she seemed nice and she was the boss lady. Even if she was much older. But, of course she'd be much older. One had to be older to be the boss lady.

-

Minghao and Joshua's bodies rocked together back and forth on the bed as Joshua thrust up inside Minghao and hit the spot that he knew from experience now sent Minghao completely high. 

Minghao wrapped his hands around Joshua's back, nails clawing at him as he moved back and forth inside of him. Minghao's head was tipped back against the bed and his eyes were closed, his lips permantely parted. He breathed in and out heavy breaths through them, and his skin and hair was covered in sweat. Blood from Joshua's body got on his body, the cuts sharp and brilliant and alive against Joshua's otherwise flawless skin. 

-

Junhui sank back into the passenger seat of Vanessa Morrabito's Audi, listening to the sound of her talking quietly and the sound of "Yes, I'm Changing" by Tame Impala playing from a CD she had set in the player. Junhui rarely saw anyone with CD's in the car, but, then, she was in her forties so the time fitted her habits from the 90's and 2000's. It was great. 

His eyes had sunk down closed and he was nearly asleep when a sharp-nailed hand prodded at his knee gently. A smiling Vanessa was offering her phone to him with quite a bit of text translated into Mandarin with the helpful assitance of Google Translate.

Junhui read through it. A few things made me smile, others made him concerntrate, others made him laugh. Vanessa smiled all the while. At the end of the text she had translated, "I am not mean woman unless you push the bitch button; I be quite cheerful, happy lady most of the time". 

"Thank you, Vanessa." Junhui said, a bit of scrap English he knew. Vanessa grinned. When she grinned her thick brows seemed even thick and her nose seemed to be wider along with her teeth and face and the set of her eyes. She looked quite lovely, really, when she grinned like that.

"Call me Nessa." She said. "Nessa, not Vanessa." She winked at him. 

-

Minghao and Joshua had passed out asleep beside each other in Minghao's bed. They woke up around six hours later, Minghao previously asleep on Joshua's arm.

"Hao?" Joshua said softly. Minghao's eyes opened to look into Joshua's.

"Hey." Joshua faintly smiled, clasping Minghao's chin between his thumb and index finger for a moment. Minghao's eyes slipped half-closed at the contact.

"Hey." Minghao replied. He and Joshua gazed at each other intently, secretly, wantingly, honestly. "You want a shower?" He asked.

"Yeah, if you don't mind." Joshua said.

"Sure, no worries, I'll get you some towels." Minghao got up he and Joshua's bed and went to fish some stuff out of the linen cupboard. Just as he got out what he needed, something uncontrollable overtook all of his senses. 

He had just thought of his bed as his bed, he and Junhui's bed...he and Joshua's bed.

Oh, God.

What was he doing?

-

After twenty minutes, Minghao went up to check on Joshua. Even though he had said to Joshua about a shower, the bath had been run earlier. That was ok. Joshua preferred the bath over the shower.

Minghao looked into the bathroom and smiled.

Joshua had gone to sleep in the bath. Minghao knelt down on the mat beside the bath. "Josh?" Minghao put a hand on Joshua's chest.

Joshua's eyes opened again. "Oh, God, I did that last week at home." He chuckled softly as he made his confession.

"No worries." Minghao murmured. He and Joshua gazed at each other, before, a feeling so faint and so natural, Minghao climbed into the warm water between Joshua's legs, and both held onto the other one tightly and needfully as they kissed and kissed and kissed.

-

Minghao and Jeonghan were back at Sylvia's house the next day. Minghao played the footage he had filmed of Jeonghan, and the photographs he had taken. Jeonghan was blown away; he didn't realize that he could look like that, that someone could capture his body looking like that. It looked so realistic but then so etherealistic. It made Jeonghan's mind spin helplessly.

"And if you don't think it's a crime you can come along with me." Jeonghan on film had softly said as Minghao had filmed him against the white screens the other day in Sylvia's studio, the light darkened down to give shades of black, grey, silver and white over Jeonghan and the background behind him as the camera came in for a close up and gave a soft-focus run over his body before curving away on a dutch angle, magnificent and magical and high-inducing.

"This is incredible." Jeonghan said to Minghao befort bursting out laughing due to the said incredulousness of the situation that really, really wasn't as bad a one as Jeonghan had previously given it thought to.

"Yeah?" Minghao leant his face in his hands, his elbows on his knees; he and Jeonghan were sitting on the entrance steps to the studio from the main part of Sylvia's house. 

"Yes." Jeonghan nodded, hugging his own knees to his chest, lost in his own wonder.

"Would you come back and do it again for me?" Minghao asked. Jeonghan thought for a few minutes.

"Yes." He said, looking at Minghao. Something, silently, invisibly, inphysically, a agreement was signed, sealed and delivered. Everything about was theirs.

Oh my God, Jeonghan thought. \- "Woo, can I talk to you about something when we get home? Don't rush about, mate, nothing serious, nothing bad. Take care." Mingyu left a message on Wonwoo's phone for when he knocked off work. His boss truly was a cunt of a man - Wonwoo rang him back. "I'm coming home now." Minghao looked at his watch. It was nearly nine 'o' clock, and Wonwoo had arrived at work at half-six that morning. "Oh, that's good." He answered. "You won't believe what happened." Wonwoo groaned. Mingyu remained ever-hopeful of a matter that really would never happen. "You quit?" Mingyu questioned. "No." "What happened?" "Someone broke on the receptionist's noses down on the first floor." Wonwoo told him. Mingyu's eyes widened. "Oh, shit, really?" He ran his hand through his hair. "Yeah, we've had police here all evening." Wonwoo confirmed. "Why did she get punched?" Mingyu asked. Wonwoo sighed. "Someone wanted to see my boss, really agitated, and when the poor woman tried to calm him down and explain that it was after-hours, he couldn't see boss, he went bezerk. He smacked her around the face, pulled out her hair, and, then, it's believed he was trying to sexually assault her." Mingyu scoffed. "Fucking hell, is she alright?" "She'll survive; you should have seen what the clerks and the security did to this guy." Wonwoo answered. "Bashed him to a fucking pulp. When the ambulance came it wasn't so much for the poor girl, it was for the fuck that attacked her." "Shit." Mingyu swore. "But, now the problem is all the security and clerks who bashed up this guy are facing assault charges." Cold and hard contempt etched itself in Wonwoo's tone. "Oh, come on." Mingyu rolled his eyes. That was always the story, wasn't it? Nevermind a poor young woman got badly hurt by some maniac that needed to be shot. "Which they can't retain their jobs over if they do get charged." Wonwoo added. "That's fucked." Mingyu remarked. Wonwoo hummed a agreement. "It's been fucking havoc." Wonwoo sighed again. Mingyu let Wonwoo go, and, afterwards, he really, really felt that he couldn't ask Wonwoo if he was seeing someone - another man - without saying anything to him, especially on a day like this. \- "Hey." Jeonghan murmured, nuzzling his nose and mouth into the back of Joshua's neck, his arms wrapped around Joshua's torso. He knew Joshua wasn't really asleep; Jeonghan had noticed Joshua's chest stop rising and falling for breath for a few moments from where he lay on his side, facing away from the window. Joshua was acting funny lately; not precisely distant, but, he wouldn't let Jeonghan touch him in a certain way and in certain places. Joshua wouldn't let Jeonghan have sex with him either. Jeonghan let the tip of his tongue press against a point on the back of Joshua's neck before pressing his lips in a kiss over it, and, he felt the shiver run down Joshua's limbs beneath his skin. "Josh..." Jeonghan leant his forehead against the back of Joshua's neck. "Come on. Talk to me..." Joshua shifted in his arms. Jeonghan opened them up a bit more so Joshua could turn over. They lay there in a peacefully silent embrace, tucked up and warm together on the surprisingly harsh winter night. "Goodnight, Jeonghan." Joshua said, his lips moving against the top of Jeonghan's head. \- Jeonghan woke up early the next morning hot and tight and needful. He needed Joshua. And having him pressed up so close to him like that was driving him insane. Even though Jeonghan was fit to jump out of his skin, Joshua slept on peacefully with his breathing even and his lips parted slightly as he dreamt. Trying to give himself what he could for now, Jeonghan wrapped his arms tighter around Joshua's waist, pressing Joshua's body up against his. Jeonghan nearly shuddered a breath as the heat inside flushed even more profoundly, going right to the tips of his toes and fingers and spine and head. All of him was completely consumed by this feeling. \- "How are we feeling today?" Jihoon was sitting outside in the hospitals courtyard garden in a wheelchair and a oxi-tank when he heard Madeleine's voice. He smiled at her. Madeleine bent down to talk to him, not so much for his height, but or the matter he was in the wheelchair. "You've helped a great deal." He answered. She touched his head. Jihoon's eyes slipped closed briefly. He quite liked it when she did little things like that. "You might be able to go home in a few days." She smiled. Today, her lipstick was a dark burgundy, and not her usual pink. It looked lovely on her with her dark polynesian-like features. "Maybe." Jihoon granted. As strange as it was, though he was very, very sick and he very much wished he wasn't, been out of hospital meant that he wouldn't be able to see Madeleine. He wasn't quite sure what he'd do without been able to see Madeleine every single day. "You have a moment for me?" She asked. Jihoon nodded. She drew over a seat from a near-by trestle table, and asked Jihoon if the sun was getting in his eyes from where one of the other nurses had settled him earlier. "What sort of things do you like?" She asked. Jihoon blinked. Oh...he thought softly. A very nice warmth began to curl gently in his stomach. "Music." He answered simply. He wondered if he should say it before he did. "And spending time with you." Something in Madeleine's dark, dark eyes light up very brightly. Jihoon was mildly taken aback, but, he was happy. "Well, that's splendid." She touched his knee with a grin. "Because I like spending time with you, too, short-arse." Jihoon and Madeleine took one look at each other before they both burst out laughing. 


	27. TWENTY-SEVEN

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chan nearly loses the plot when his girlfriend Christine-Elene is accused of sexual assault and harassment, and Seungcheol sees the cuts on Joshuas arm from he and Minghao's violent, kinky sex and is horrified by the fact that Joshua may be self-harming

Vernon had been watching television and Seungkwan had been sorting through office paperwork from his job as a humanities tutor at his university when loud and angry knocking sounded at the front door. Vernon cautiously went to answer it after collecting up the solid wooden cricket bat that was still propped up in his wardrobe from last summer. It was only Chan. Vernon deflated from his Jackie Chan "defend, protect, and cause a serious hospital trip" composure when he saw who it was, but, then, he immediately felt the sharpness come back into his bones at the ferocious look in Chan's dark eyes and the ashy complexion of his skin. "What's happened?" Vernon asked cautiously. Chan didn't seem to notice the cricket bat in Vernon's hand.

"My girlfriends just been accused of sexually assaulting and otherwise harrassing a lesbian girl by the lesbian girl's fucking cousin." Chan answered.

"You have to be fucking kidding." Vernon commented deadpannedly.

Chan scoffed violently. Vernon thought only twice before had he seen Chan this angry, and, twice before, it had been serious matters, too. "I'm not." Chan nearly snarled.

"Oh my god." Vernon put the cricket bat under his arm and put his other arm around Chan, guiding him indoors and into the kitchen where Seungkwan had enough of a idea what was going on to get the grog out and pour very, very un-healthy amounts into coffee mugs.

-

Sick, horrific, agonizing fear enveloped Seungcheol at the sight of a cut along Joshua's arm from where his shirt shifted slightly as he reached past him to collect the freshly boiled kettle of hot water to pour into a pan on the stove-top to cook the ramen noodles that all of them agreed to have that night as far as food went.

Seungcheol left the kitchen as quickly as he could and jammed his ear-phones into his ears and played music as loud as he could to obliterate his brain and it's memory and it's understanding and his body from this world.

He felt like he was dying. Or, as Seungcheol distantly and raggedly came to think, what Minghao felt like when Sylvia Jenkin's died.

-

"But Chrissie - Christine-Elena - isn't a lesbian, or, you know, half a lesbian - bisexual - is she?" Vernon quipped to Chan.

Chan shrugged, putting his mug of whiskey back down onto the kitchen table. "She might like women and not say it to me - I dunno - but i know for a fact there is no way in hell she would have done that."

"But, why would the girl make it up?" Seungkwan's brows furrowed.

"Because women are cunts and cunts lie and women lie because they are not exempt from it because they have a vagina, the sub-human fucking bitches." Chan snarled angrily.

"It's ok, mate, we know." Vernon said to Chan, who he could so clearly see was on the edge of exploding out of pure grief. He glared at Seungkwan, trying to shut the now severely shaken man up. Vernon genuinely wouldn't put it past Chan to smash the mug over Seungkwan's head if he didn't get with the program.

"And it's bullshit, anyway." Chan swallowed another mouthful of alcohol. "Because if she was a dyke, why would Chrissie be with me, anyway?"

Seungkwan and Vernon looked at each other. How could they possibly explain it all to Chan when they could barely get around it themselves?

-

Seungcheol wished he could call Jihoon and talk to him about Joshua, but, he wasn't able to. Jihoon was still in hospital, and, if he knew, he would nearly die all over again from another stress-induced heart-attack.

His heart would literally break.

He couldn't tell Jeonghan, because, Jeonghan been Jeonghan, would re-create a scene with more drama than the Russians breaking down Aucshwitz concerntration camp.

He couldn't tell anyone.

Seungcheol rolled over in his bed and wondered how easy it would be if he was just dead. He wouldn't have to feel like this.

He wouldn't be able to feel anything...at all.

-

THE NEXT MORNING:

Christine-Elena looked hollow-eyed at a very hung-over but still - miraculously - coherent and concious Chan. They sat on the back-steps of Vernon and Seungkwan's house. Chan had slept on the couch.

She opened her mouth and told Chan the truth. "I'm bisexual. I've always known, but, if I date either man or woman, they are the only person in the world I have eyes for, and I truly only be with people that make me alive and full of love, and, when it is like this, my sexuality doesn't matter because my soul, my heart, my body, my sexuality, is all about them, only for them. They don't need to hear that I want a man or a woman, and, they would then get the fear that I have an affair with the opposite sex or I leave them for the opposite sex because after a while I need the opposite sex more than the person I have been with, possibly for a long, long time, Chan. This girl...she's a year younger than me. I met her through a LGBT+ dating sight, and, everything she specified she wanted was me. I would never have gone to her if I knew I wasn't worthy of her, could give her something. It was so deep and honest and warm...I was infatuated. But, we rushed in. Like ELvis Presley say...we are the fools, ja, darling?" She smiled heartbreakingly and softly at Chan. "She wanted pictures of my naked body and she wanted all of me. She was consumed by checking I loved her and needed her and wouldn't leave her because she was so insecure and anxious. When she was younger, she was bullied and apparently she wanted to kill herself, but I dismissed that. I could help her in the fact I would not be like the others; I could support her, look after her, keep her safe, not do what the others did. I sent her nudes because she begged, said she needed me, wanted me, but she's so damaged inside that when she is hurt she has made me into a monster for all her family." Christine-Elena looked at her feet. "We got talking about religion once, and, I found out that she was a obsessive Christian, but, she's not really, I don't think. She wanted a Pagan woman and was always on about the Greek God, Zues, so, what the fuck?She was always on about the devil, and, then this mania made her turn on me. It exploded terribly. I tried to convince her this thing she builds her life around and which has fueled her mental health in a bad way is hurting her, and, she must understand that most of it is fiction, but this fiction is not harmless; it's getting at her in a bad, bad way. It just killed everything. I didn't want to leave her, but...I sent her a few messages that as she still loves me or whatever we can remove all that...and next thing I know I'm getting accused of slander and sexual harrassment because when I was drunk and upset I sent this message to a girl I know who knows my ex and her family. I did not know this. I was so angry and because I thought they did not know one another at all I put it across like a physical relationship and not a mostly-internet one so I would not seem like such a fool. But, then, her cousin...I could kill her. I could just kill her." When Christine-Elena finished, she looked at Chan.

"I don't know what to say." Chan said. "I don't know how to help."

Christine-Elena smiled faintly, and she was like a ghost more than any other woman who had ever lived. "I could kill them." She whispered. "I wish I knew this pagan Sylvia Jenkins who you all knew. The Welsh are angry, vicious, remembering, terrifying people. I could have done with her courage." She ran her hands through her silvery-white hair.

"Could always take you around to Hao's if it'll make you feel better?" Chan offered simply. 

"Make me feel better?" Christine-Elena echoed.

"Yeah." Chan nodded.

"You're not angry at me?" Christine-Elena asked.

"No." Chan swallowed heavily. "I love you."

Hot, heavy tears slipped down Christine-Elena's face. She leant down against Chan's shoulders. "We'll work this out." He said down to her.


	28. FOREVER IS NOT ENOUGH

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jihoon and Madeleine bathe in the bliss of new love with the happy acceptance of the teasing Soonyoung and Seokmin, Joshua and Minghao's horrific but universal relationship is unable to be broken, Junhui is becoming more and more attached to the sunshine-like Vanessa Morrobito and the Australian landscape, and Seungcheol caves in to Jeonghan with his fear about Joshuas supposed self-harming. Christina-Elene and Chan solve the relationship troubles of Christine-Elenas same-sed relationship, Wonwoo tells Mingyu about Woosung, and Seungkwan gets scared about getting older and things changing, but Vetnon comes to his rescue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is so much more to come :) So, hang tight.

"Just bring me in your accounts, I can do them here." Jihoon told Madeleine as she checked his blood-pressure. "I've got not much else to do rather than agonize over you; mounds of government health money to organize into nice little piles would be a fantastic distraction."

A visiting Soonyoung and Seokmin nodded simultaneously and meaningfully at Madeleine; they knew now that Jihoon was quite taken with her, and, of all the girls their group had recently dated or otherwise lost - Sylvia Jenkin's exempted as she was the only one of their girls to have actually died/got a terminal illness - Madeleine was tip-top the most promising. If extremely polynesian-looking, which made her a stunner by Western standards and hideous by Eastern standards. Madeleine laughed softly.

"Oh, alright." She gave into Jihoon. "But you must not stay up too late at night doing them for me, ok?" One of her hands curved gently around the back of his head and she kissed the top of his head.

Soonyong and Seokmin simultanoueously leant the right side of their faces between their index fingers and thumbs, elbows on the arms of their chairs on the left side of Jihoon's hospital bed and smoothly wolf-whistled.

Madeleine checked around for signs of her fellow nurses or the dragon-like Matron before fruitily giving the boys the bird and equally fruitily telling them to shut up otherwise she'd do something quite horrendous to their genitals.

-

Joshua and Minghao lay wrapped up together in comfortable silence, but, in their world, the world they created for themselves, comfortable was not a word to enter their zone. Joshua's hips and the insides of his thighs were cut to shreds and they still bled, but, it only made him high, not pained. The knife used had been dropped to the floor, as did the rope that had tied up his wrists and the band around his neck that had choked him. There was probably blood-drop stains on the carpet, but, two Joshua and Minghao then, none of it mattered.

"Can we do this forever?" Joshua murmured to Minghao's, his lips just brushing the top of Minghao's ear. Minghao exhaled a breath, the warmth flooding over the skin o Joshua's neck. He looked up to him.

"Forever's not enough." He whispered before his hand went into Joshua's hair and they were kissing. 

Junhui was coming back from Australia in five days, and, this relationship was just too obsessive, too hot, too meaningful, too powerful, too horrific to stop in five days, and, after that five days, forever. 

-

Junhui nearly stubbed his toe for the fifth time that day on the table-leg of Vanessa Morrobito's desk in her office at their magazine publishing offices in Sydney's cosy, multi-million-worth hub overlooking the harbour and the rivers that flowed too and from it. Junhui liked Australia; it came into the same sort of category as America, a notorious anglo-saxon invaded land with it's invaders now truly their own established race, practically, but, Australia wasn't as cheap, or as fake as America. A lot of Australia was cheap and fake, but, the romanticism of the Aboriginal land wasn't as ravished and destroyed as America was.

"Why do you keep jerking like this?" Vanessa asked as he brought in another pile of translated and photo-copied documents. She pointed to him and then her desk as to make the point considering the language barrier. Junhui brought out his phone and put his explanation into Google. Vanessa laughed when she read it. She replied to him via Google as well.

Oh, sorry about that, love. Only five more days of this stupid table to endure and then you can go home and have your own bed and your own tables that you don't crash into when you walk

As he finished reading and looked up at Vanessa's Italian face, she smiled widely and happily, but, there was a tenderness to it. Vanessa's office was a thing of beauty, a neo-modern Scandinavian space with stripped back floorboards, three laptops, a telelvision, exposed brick, sofas, a yoga ball, cushions everywhere, always a hot and full tea-pot, and stunning views out of Sydney harbour and the tropically-designed gardened that naturally grew all around the landscape by the water.

You should come and work in Korea, Junhui told her through Google. You'd frighten the living shit out of the guys in the office

Vanessa laughed happily as she read his messages. Even though she was much older than him, married, and had two children, Junhui like Vanessa. She was happy - constantly happy - and she was genuine with this happiness. So unlike Minghao. Junhui tried to remember for Minghao's sake about Sylvia Jenkins, but, when Vanessa came into the room - or, rather, her nose before her, to be perfectly honest without unkind intention - Junhui quite forgot all about Minghao, and, with Minghao, that Sylvia Jenkins.

"Lunch - now." Vanessa got Junhui's attention. Junhui had made the effort to learn useful English worlds. "Lunch" and "Now" were quite useful, indeed.

"What we have?" He asked.

"Kangaroo, boy." Vanessa stuck her tongue out and put her hands up in crooked paws over her breasts before hopping across the office like a kangaroo in imitation. "Nibble on my arse!" She called out after him with pretty, happy laughter that reminded Junhui of the sun.

-

Seungcheol hadn't been able to contain it within himself. He had collapsed inwardly and had told Jeonghan he thought - well, knew - that Joshua was cutting himself. Jeonghan had paled sickfully and felt his internal being swaying desperately and weakly as the words from Seungcheol's mouth flooded into his ears. "I can't do this." Jeonghan said at the same time that Seungcheol went to say the same thing. "What do we do?" Seungcheol barely managed before his throat closed up drily and painfully. "I don't get it." Jeonghan whispered, pressing his hands together as though in Christian prayer and them pressing them to his mouth, chin and nose for a moment. "He's...he's not sad or depressed, but he's....he's being, you know..." "Sorry." Seungcheol said before dashing over to the sitting room west of the sitting room, opening it, and promptly vomited his guts up into the Chinese-Peach trees that lined the inner-city street below. "Oh my God." Jeonghan said to himself before a tiny giggle escaped his mouth. As he grinned helplessly he pressed his hand over his mouth, but, it didn't help it, he burst out laughing. He just couldn't help it. He sunk down into a crouch, pressing one of his hands to one side of his face and running his hair through his hair while Seungcheol collapsed weakly against the window-sill and wall, his mouth dirty and his body killing him. \- "I forget about her. I don't think about her. Because I realize it is not my fault, Chan." Christine-Elena told Chan postively while "Blow Me One Last Kiss" on vinyl played from her record player in her 1930's built apartment down by the river. Chan smiled. "That's my girl." He smiled. He held out his hand, and Christine-Elena didn't quite get it until he started to boogy around her sitting room. She laughed in the way on Scandinavian women did, and then began to dance in a way that only Scandinavian women did. Her lips peeled apart in a lovely smile and her grey eyes shone and her hair was illuminated in the day's warmer than other's winter sunlight that came into her apartment. Christine-Elena spun around into Chan's arms, and they danced about. It wasn't her fault. It's true. It wasn't her fault. No one can help someone elses mental issues, and what those mental issues do. And most mental-issue suffering people were liars, anyway A universal fact. It wasn't her fault. "WATCH OUT!" Christine-Elena shouted as Chan accidentally fell over the coffee-table and went backwardly head-first into the hearth of her fireplace and got covered in soot and as yet not quite burnt tree, but, thankfully, not catching fire himself. "There really is no one like you, bubba." She told Chan, helping him up off the ground. "Same for you, Chrissie." Chan told her. "You're a fucking maniac, babe." He kissed her forehead and then let ehr chase him out of her apartment, down the stairs, and out across the street for three city blocks before she ran out of puff, and she suggested going down to the nearest off-liscence and getting early-smashed on ludicrously-cheap red wine. \- It was half-eight on a Sunday morning when Wonwoo finally got around to telling Mingyu about poor old - or, rather, dear old - Woosung. "You're going to have a fit." Wonwoo warned before-hand. He was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, and Mingyu was still in one of his sleeping shirts and his jeans. He put a coffee down in front of Mingyu, and Mingyu politely had a decent swig of it to - even more politely - bring his head around the block. "No, it's alright, just tell me who it is." Mingyu frowned suddenly and only very slightly. "Are you worried that I suddenly don't like ladyboys or something?" Wonwoo burst out laughing. "No, said person is not a ladyboy." He confirmed with a blush. He cast his eyes down. "He's perfect." "Ok...sorry, what?" Mingyu blinked. "Hm?" Wonwoo gazed at him. "He?" Mingyu implored. "Yes. He." Wonwoo nodded. "FUCKING HELL!" Mingyu stared at Wonwoo across the table. "You're a fag?!" They took one look at each other before they both lost it. Wonwoo knew that Mingyu didn't mean "fag" in that way; it was just the sheer shock of the situation. "Yeah, lots of fagging around and tongue kissing with the next door neighbour." Wonwoo quipped. Mingyu blinked. "I'm fucking Woosung." Wonwoo pointed through the kitchen window at Woosung's house next door. Mingyu took one look at him before launching across the kitchen, opening the glass-sliding doors, going onto the verandah, down the stairs, and across the back garden to the neighbouring fence. "YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Mingyu roared at Woosung. Wonwoo nearly wet himself laughing. It was obvious Mingyu wasn't angry despite his choice of words. "Gyu, come back inside, you retard..." Wonwoo called after Mingyu, but the call was too soft for Mingyu to actually here; Wonwoo meant it more out of affection than order. He collected his mug of coffee and walked bare-foot across the back lawn that Mingyu did a impeccable job of keeping tidy. Mingyu had only mowed the lawn yesterday, so loose clippings and their fresh, distinct smell still filled up the air. Just as Wonwoo looked over the fence with Mingyu, Woosung came out of his back door and looked at them from a distance. Woosung didn't know Mingyu well enough to know that he could make a big noise but there wasn't actually bite in it. Wonwoo thought Woosung looked very handsome in his black dressing gown and navy pyjama pants and grey shirt. It was scarcely half-eight in the morning, and it was a Sunday. Most of the Northern Hemisphere was having a sleep-in. Until Mingyu went out the back door, that was. "And you're a fag that's into the older man?" Mingyu clasped his hands on the fence and looked to Wonwoo with a raised eyebrow. "I just told him." Wonwoo explained to a cautious Woosung. Woosung smiled relievedly. Wonwoo thought he looked suddenly ten times even more handsome. "Oh, alright, love." He called back. "Love?" Mingyu prodded at Wonwoo. "Yes, love." Wonwoo wasn't fazed. "Want me to come over?" Woosung called. "Get some clothes on first, grandpa - oof!" Mingyu barely managed before he doubled over as Wonwoo skillfully thumped his curled fist into the taller man's testicles. "If you like." Wonwoo smiled. "Is your friend alright?" Woosung asked, his maturity coming into obvious matter. Wonwoo rolled his eyes. He peered down to Mingyu on the ground. "Yeah, the dickheads fine." Wonwoo answered. \- "Vern, can I ask you a stupid question?" Seungkwan asked as he collected the plate from which had been sitting on their kitchen table for the last ten minutes; Vernon had finished his toast and had been reading the sales adverts in the Telegraph. Vernon mostly read the newspaper for the fun of taking the piss out of it; one day there had been a advert entitled "ENCYCLOPEDIAS FOR SALE: I MARRIED A MAN WHO KNOWS EVERY FUCKING THING". Another time, there was a advert with the synopsis of, "TREADMILL FOR SALE; DIAL 5555 4487 - ASK FOR FATSO". Vernon looked over the top of newspaper endearingly. Seungkwan nearly dropped the plate. Fucking hell. Someone was in a nice mood. "Better than anyone else I know." Vernon answered. "Why do crabs walk sideways?" Seungkwan asked. Vernon grinned. "So they can do their song." Vernon got up from the table and waddled sideways while he snapped each hand together like a crab. "Oh, how I do like to be beside the seaside..." This time, Seungkwan did drop the plate due to laughing. "Oh, shit, sorry." Seungkwan suddenly panicked. "Mate, it's a fuckin' plate, don't worry 'bout it." Vernon brushed it off, ducking down to pick up the piece of smashed ceramic. Seungkwan gazed down at the back of Vernon's head. "Can I ask you what I was actually going to ask you?" Seungkwan knotted his hands together. "The thing about crabs - that wasn't it." He sucked in a deep and silent breath as Vernon peered up at him. Vernon sat cross-legged on the yellow laminate floor of their old house, pieces of broken crockery in his hands and lap. Seungkwan hoped Vernon didn't cut himself by accident. "Are you going to date anyone anytime soon and leave?" Seungkwan suddenly blurted. Vernon blinked. "No." He answered. "Hey, mate, what are you worrying about that before?" Seungkwan's teeth nearly shredded the inside of his lower lip. "It's just that everyone I know is settling down and getting married and changing and becoming like our parents - or becoming parents themselves, having babies." He looked down to his feet, but, then, that line of gaze came too close to Vernon. "Could you stay with me for a little longer?" Vernon smiled gently, genuinely up at Seungkwan. "I can stay forever." He told Seungkwan. 


	29. TWENTY-NINE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeonghan is crippled by fear over Joshuas possible state but all is healed when Joshua half explains what is going on; Jihoon proposes to Madeleine with the assistance of the ever-jolly Seokmin and Soonyoung, and, when Junhui returns, he finds Minghao and Joshua in the middle of their horrific affair, and, brings in Jeonghan and Seungcheol to help him for Joshua's sake. The angels are none too happy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a comment earlier asking how much longer this is going to go on for, and, for said person and then for everyone else - be in the long haul. Naturalist works are rarely short; Emile Zola wrote a 15-part series, for instance :)

  
"Where have you been?" Was the first thing Joshua heard as he came home back through the front door of he, Jeonghan and Seungcheol's apartment. He was in one of his black hoodies and jeans with a bag that he had taken to Minghao's house full of....things.

"Sorry?" Joshua echoed, closing the front door with a click behind him. Jeonghan was sitting at the island bench of the kitchen. There wasn't something quite right, but, Joshua couldn't put his finger on what it was.

"Josh, where have you been?" Jeonghan asked.

Joshua wondered if he was going to cause strife - or strife in the future to come - by answering half-honestly. "I've been at Minghao's."

"Oh." Something in Jeonghan visibly deflated relievedly. "Cool, yeah." He smiled, but, again, there was something over-bright about it. Jeonghan was trying too...

"What's the matter?" Joshua walked over to Jeonghan. The over-brightness grew more infinitely. "Someone's upset you...hey..." He wrapped his arms around Jeonghan as Jeonghan ducked his head but tears slid down his nose and dripped to the ground, and then onto Joshua's hoodie.

"Why are you doing it to yourself?" Jeonghan stutted out emotionally, looking up at Joshua. Joshua frowned. 

"Han, what are you on about?" The backs of Joshua's fingers on one hand touched Jeonghan's cheekbone. Jeonghan nearly collapsed under that so missed touch of intimacy. It radiated through his being, and went straight to his head.

"The cuts on your arm..." Suddenly, Jeonghan was propelled into a different world as Joshua burst out laughing, before pulling him in for a intense and happy kiss. Jeonghan's knees truly did go out from beneath him, and Joshua pushed him up against the island bench with Jeonghan's arms around his neck and Joshua's hands at the back of Jeonghan's head and at the small of his back. 

"You'll think I'm dumb." Joshua pulled back and told Jeonghan when Jeonghan was ready to stop, able to stop. 

"Yeah?" Jeonghan murmured, the fear almost returning.

"Minghao got talking about Sylvia Jenkins because he was sad and missing Junhui on top of it all, and he told me about a shoot they did where he stood naked in front of a plaster wall - a temporary one - and, with the camera on auto-film, she threw knives all around his body without her herself being filmed." Joshua grinned as helpess relief flushed through Jeonghan's body. "Minghao went to teach me how to throw knives, but, the main thing to practice is throwing and catching them." Joshua took one of his hands away - the one from the small of Jeonghan's back - and mimicked the catching and throwing gesture. Jeonghan felt all the blood and heat and sense of lie in his body flourish beyond any possible description of dramatism before rushing down to his abdomen hotly. The fact that one of Joshua's hands was still at the back of his head, holding him, supporting him, made Jeonghan dizzy. 

"Cheol saw your arm and we thought you were hurting yourself." Jeonghan barely managed to get out as visceral highs began to burn inside of him. Joshua pressed their bodies up together, and, Jeonghan nearly gasped at the contact. It was months and months and months since he had had any sex at all, and, it had been eons since he and Joshua had properly fucked around -

"I'd never do that." Joshua whispered against Jeonghan's lips. "Come here..." 

The two of them melded into one.

-

Jihoon knew he couldn't be without Madeleine. He truly did love her. So, it was why he did it. He was going to be released from hospital later that day in the early afternoon, so, at half-ten in the morning once the nurses had completed the usual morning checks, baths and breakfasts, Jihoon got the plan into action with the help of Seokmin and Soonyoung. 

"Yeh Madeleine..." He said to her, getting down on one knee and opening the red velvet ring-box in his small hands in the middle of the charcoal carpeted hallway in the private rooms hallway of the cardiology unit with the nurses station and the visitors atrium hall and courtyard garden just at the other end. Late summer sunlight, soft and sweet and fresh, flooded through open windows and through open doorways to light up the otherwise mildly sombre and stern hospital corridors despite their carpet and fresh paint and the smell of baking from the atrium. "Would you do me the greatest honour in the world by hedging your bets and getting married with me?" Jihoon smiled as he gazed up at her. All of Madeleine's friends, work friends, senior officals, doctors and her dragon-like Matron clapped and made soft hums in the background. Jihoon had thought he could do it another way, but, it had been both Seokmin and Soonyoung's opinion that it would mean more to Madeleine if he did it this way. Jihoon thought they were absolutely right. He just knew it, deep down inside. 

Madeleine burst into tears. She wished that she had something slightly better on rather than her slightly oily hair - in need of a wash - pulled back in a tight pony-tail with her cheap lip-gloss and nursing smocks and trainers. "Oh my God, Jihoon..." She whispered, her hands covering her face before she peeked out through her fingers at him.

"Oh, darling, don't cry." Jihoon said. He looked around to Seokmin and Soonyoung who could just be seen standing with a vinyl record player just behind the doorway into his private room. Jihoon had a feeling this might happen. So, he picked the perfect lady heart-soother and heart-burner.

God bless the hearts of Sylvia Jenkins and Xu Minghao, Jihoon thought, for whom this song would not be known by any of their little wild, choatic, happy, merry group if not for them.

The sound of The Righteous Brothers singing "Un-chained Melody" filled up the cardiology department and wards of the hospital. The other patients and nurses and doctors ooed and aahed and clapped and smiled at the romanticism of it all. Even the dragon-like matron seemed to have a heart; she didn't quite smile, but, she was now 19% more beautiful than a troll, rather than the usual 3% uglier than a troll.

"I love you so much, Yeh Madeleine." Jihoon told her. "You mean everything to me. You quite literally have saved my life and set me back on my feet."

Madeleine sniffed heavily and wiped her eyes, trying to keep herself together but not quite getting about to it. 

"Please say yes." Jihoon said. "I know I'm only a midget, and midgets can only offer so much -" He broke off, laughing himself as everyone lost all composure and gave in. "But, you, big enough for the both of us, you monolidded amazon, well, I think we'll be ok." Jihoon smiled up at her.

Madeleine bobbed down onto the ground by his side.

"Hey, you're supposed to be up there -" Jihoon gestured, but, Madeleine cut him off.

"I will marry you, sweetheart." She kissed his cheek, and then his mouth, and she let him slip the wedding ring onto her finger. 

"And time goes by so slowly, and time can do so much...!" The Righteous Brother's operatically and beautifully sang.

Everyone burst out into whoops and applause, and Jihoon heard the sound of Seokmin sniffing as he cried - such a easy crier he was - and Soonyoung held the fort and kept the volume under control so none of the babies in the maternity ward two floors above were bothered by the sound of two americans still singing bright, even in sweet old Americana 1965.

Jihoon gathered up the huge Madeleine as best as he could, and, everyone slow-danced in the hall and the rooms; other patients began to sing along, and Jihoon laughed at the sight of Seokmin balancing the record player while he and Soonyoung cuddled up fairly close and waddled about as best as they could. Even the Matron got a dance with one of the older Doctor's. Madeleine's harshly slanted eyes became eight times their width. She pointed for Jihoon's sake.

The old bitch was actually smiling!

"I need your love...God speed your love to me...!"

-

FOUR DAY'S LATER:

The cuts were re-opened on the sides of Joshua's hips, and new ones were made. Sometimes, throughout the week, regret and shame curled horrifically and strongly and bitterly in his bones and his soul until he was shaking and begging his Christian God to forgive him and heal him and end this. But, he kept coming back to Minghao and the brutality. He couldn't help it. It made him high, and, Joshua loved the high.

He loved Minghao.

He truly had begun to love Minghao. 

Minghao thrusted into Joshua from behind, having the older man on his hands and knees in front of him. Minghao's fingers dug into the cuts and the bloodied flesh of Joshua's hips, and Joshua's moans were a mix of the sex, the high it induced, the sight of blood everywhere and all over he and Minghao, and, the pain. The bright, glorious pain. Joshua rocked his hips back against Minghao's, trying to get the Chinese man even deeper inside him.

"Please, please, please..." Joshua gasped as Minghao added three of his fingers to be inside of him as well. 

"How does that feel?" Minghao bent over him and asked, and, just as he did so, there was the crash of the front door. It was Junhui, but, neither Minghao or Joshua were concious of it, could coherently think of what it could be, why it could be. Especially when it was Minghao's belief that when Junhui came back to Korea, instead of coming straight home, he could go straight to the office with some picked-up Australian charm. Neither did them notice as the creak of stairs been climbed sounded. They only knew when the door opened and the sound of Junhui dropping his suitcase to the ground out of shock sounded. Junhui helplessly stared open-mouthed at them for a few seconds, before turning on his heel and running.

Minghao wiped the lube and blood-covered hands on Joshua's back and ran downstairs after Junhui. As Minghao called Junhui's name, Joshua collapsed down onto the bed and just knew that the end of the world was coming. He heard half-conciously Minghao calling for Junhui to stay and not to panic and not to call the police or anything. Police. Oh my God...Joshua thought.

"You need to come now -" Junhui had just said to Seungcheol down the phone line, having called him as he went down the stairs and Minghao was still messing about with Joshua. Oh God. Oh God. Oh fucking God -

Minghao went to grab at the phone, but Junhui moved out of the way. Seungcheol had heard enough. Junhui ended the call. Minghao looked at him breathlessly.

"Jun, please -" Minghao gasped and went down to the ground as Junhui grabbed his neck and squeezed it before rushing through the house and back up the stairs. Joshua. Joshua. Joshua - no matter the sex. Fuck that. Fuck everything -

Junhui nearly vomited at the sight of Joshua's mutilated skin. "Josh, Josh, please, wake up and talk to me or something, what's happened, are you ok?" Junhui got onto his knees on what had been he and Minghao's bed and pushed as gently as he could some of Joshua's hair away from his face so he could try and see into Joshua's half-closed eyes from where he was lying on his side lengthways across the bed, looking at the bedhead and the wall behind it. 

"I'm so sorry..." Joshua crackedly murmured, his throat harsh and raw and dry.

"No, don't be, please, I've called Seungcheol -" Junhui talked down to him, but Joshua went through him like a knife with one word.

"What?"

"Yeah, it's ok, he's -"

"What have you done?" Joshua's eyes slipt close fully, and, he slumped down faint.

-

"THAT'S BRILLIANT, MATE!" Mingyu shouted down the phone happily to Jihoon, Soonyoung, Seokmin, and Madeleine. Wonwoo was in the kitchen with Woosung, and Mingyu had left for a minute out of politeness to take the call. He was on the back verandah, and he waved the phone about.

"HOONIE'S GETTING HITCHED!" He shouted out as Wonwoo opened the window over the kitchen sink and leaned out of it.

Wonwoo blinked. "What the hell are you on about?"

"Apparently he's crashed head-long first in love with one of the nurses whose like a Amazon or something. Huge bitch. Like six foot two or something!" Mingyu grinned broadly. Wonwoo's lips parted slightly before he shut the window and went to tell Woosung.

"One of our friends has just got engaged." Wonwoo managed. Woosung smiled.

"That's lovely." Woosung said. Wonwoo was a bit shell-shocked. Jihoon getting married...fucking oath...!

"Yes, it is lovley." Wonwoo whispered before going to the glass sliding doors around the corner from the kitchen and opening them back up for Mingyu to come inside, but, he was on the phone again.

"What are you doing?" Wonwoo said. He walked over to Mingyu and slapped his shoulder. "How do you do that? Let Hoonie and Seokmin and Soonyoung spread it around, not you, you tool." Wonwoo smiled a bit. "I can't believe you, sometimes." He told Mingyu. 

"Keep that face." Mingyu pointed at his nose.

"What?" Wonwoo said.

"No, keep that face." Mingyu grinned. 

-

When the call had come through from Junhui, Seungcheol had rang Jeonghan as well. Not, all of them were just tired, and stressed, and hit very hard. Jeonghan was asleep on the couch in Minghao and Junhui's sitting room, Junhui wasn't too bothered by jet-lag since there was only one hour time difference between Australian Eastern Standard time and Korea, Seungcheol was worn out from trying not to explode, and both Joshua and Minghao were completely subdued. Seungcheol was wondering how they were all still in the house together. Joshua and Minghao were now dressed, and, all of them bar Jeonghan were in the kitchen. 

"Will they heal up?" Seungcheol bit in harshly, directed at Joshua. "Because your body's going to be fucked for the rest of your life."

"How could you do that to him?" Junhui asked Minghao once more. It had been asked so many times over the hours, and, yet again, it was asked. Joshua and Minghao didn't say anything.

All of them were just desscimated.

All the screaming, fighting, anger, hurt, betrayal, and fury had been unleased before.

Now, they were all just numb. 

"You never said that you were getting Han to work for you." Joshua barely mumbled to Minghao, not looking at him, not looking at the ground, not looking at anything at all with his head angled to the ground like it was. 

"No." Minghao answered. "I didn't know what I meant and I didn't know what I was meant to say and if I should."

-

Afterwards with Seungcheol still breathing harsh and furious and Jeonghan tentative but nevertheless clinging to Joshua despite everything that had gone on - Seungcheol's anger at Joshua and Joshua's mutilated skin made Jeonghan want to protect him - Junhui and Minghao were left alone together.

"I'll move out now. Won't come back." Junhui said to Minghao.

"No." Minghao suddenly felt as frightened as ever inside. "Please don't go. Please don't leave me."

"Why the fuck shouldn't I?" Junhui glared at Minghao. "Why the fuck shouldn't I fuck up your life after you did all of this?" Junhui scoffed a laugh. "You fuck around behind my back and you still would have done it even when I was back. Fuck you, Minghao. You think I'm going to let you do this and then be with you? Fuck off. This is on my terms. And what's even worse is that you've involved three of our best friends that I'll never be able to see or talk to again. Why don't you just fucking die, you son of a fucking bitch?"

-

Later that night with Jeonghan wrapped securely around him, Joshua wished he could be back in Minghao's house in Minghao's bed with Minghao.

-

Later that night all by himself in his lonely own house and his lonely own bed, Minghao wished Joshua was with him.

-

Both men wondered if the other thought the same thing


	30. THIRTY

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jihoon and Madeleine organize wedding preparations, and Vernon comes home from the pub very drunk with a blue-heeled puppy, and a big set of news for dear old Seungkwan. As Wonwoo gets around to telling the group about Jihoons up-coming marriage, it begs a lot of questions, including two very serious ones; how much chocolate cake can one woman consume and who the fuck is Nigella Lawson?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will be update tomorrow, do not despair :)

"Why are you so tall?" The dressmaker at the business that Madeleine and her Mother had chosen for she and the bridesmaids wedding gowns tutted under her breath, talking easily around a dozen pins in her mouth after years of practice off it before bustling off to find a step-ladder so she could do Madelein's breasts measurements and then her shoulder-to-waist ratio.

Madeleine laughed with her Mother. As the dressmaker went away, she texted Jihoon.

I was right; the poor dressmaker has never had to perform for measurements like mine before. When she came into the room where I was she nearly fell over; never before has she only been up to the bottom of someone's rib-cage before

Jihoon texted Seokmin and Soonyoung with a smile on his face. Maddie's killed the wedding dressmaker

Soonyoung was the first to text back a few minutes later. The tailor for us guys will have to do a child's pattern for you

Only a few seconds later, Seokmin responded. Was the dressmaker hit by Maddie's huge breasts and concussed to death, never unconstrained in a firm-fitting over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder?

Things exploded. Soonyoung sent through more laughter emojis than Jihoon had seen before in his life, and, then, Seokmin doubled up on it.

It's true! Hoon, in our group, you have captured the best set of tits in the Universe. One day, people shall sing songs about Nurse Maddie with the big TITTIES!

Jihoon turned off his phone. He was on a train up to his parent's house, and nearly pissing himself laughing wasn't really an option.

-

"Hey, Kwan, come 'ere, mate, got somethin' to show you."

Seungkwan could immediately tell that Vernon was a bit drunk; he was chipping off the start and the ends of his words more than he usually did...and, yes, always the way.

Vernon had that dopy smile on his face as he leant against the door frame of the back door in his t-shirt, flannel shirt, and engine-grease stained jeans. "Come with me, it's so cool...thing." Vernon put his arm loosely around Seungkwan's shoulder and they walked over to the garage where a Isuzu ute that definitely didn't belong to Seungkwan and definitely didn't belong to Vernon was sat parked. They went over to the tray and Vernon pointed happily inside.

Inside was a little blue-heeler puppy playing with a pork bone nestled up in some old blankets in the back of the ute.

"Hey, Kwan, come 'ere, mate, got somethin' to show you."

Seungkwan could immediately tell that Vernon was a bit drunk; he was chipping off the start and the ends of his words more than he usually did...and, yes, always the way.

Vernon had that dopy smile on his face as he leant against the door frame of the back door in his t-shirt, flannel shirt, and engine-grease stained jeans. "Come with me, it's so cool...thing." Vernon put his arm loosely around Seungkwan's shoulder and they walked over to the garage where a Isuzu ute that definitely didn't belong to Seungkwan and definitely didn't belong to Vernon was sat parked. They went over to the tray and Vernon pointed happily inside.

Inside was a little blue-heeler puppy playing with a pork bone nestled up in some old blankets in the back of the ute.

"She's gorgeous, in'she?" Vernon's dark eyes were happily mellow. Seungkwan grinned and looked at him.

"Definitely a she?" Seungkwan asked. Vernon really was three-quarters cut.

"Oh, yeah, checked her up." Vernon mimed picking up the puppy's backside and checking. Seungkwan raised an eyebrow.

"You flirt." Seungkwan commented.

They laughed.

"Where'd she come from?" Seungkwan asked. 

"Bloke outside the pub." Vernon started looking quite sleepy but still incredibly pleased with himself.

Seungkwan scoffed a incredulous laugh. "You're kidding me, Vern?" He said.

Vernon beamed sweetly. Seungkwan reached cautiously into the ute, and, after a moments, the puppy pressed a very small and wet black nose to his fingers before it's baby tongue came out and licked him.

"Let's take her inside before she gets cold..." Vernon mumbled about.

"You want me to get her? You're wobbling." Seungkwan suggested. 

"I am not wobbling." Vernon answered stoutly, making an effort to stand up straight. Seungkwan chuckled softly.

"You are." He told Vernon.

"I am not!" Vernon insisted.

"I'll take her, yeah?" Seungkwan decided for the both of them. He reached down into the tray of the ute and wrapped up the small puppy with it's pork bone in the blanket and took her inside to the kitchen. "What are we going to call her?" Seungkwan asked Vernon.

"Not something stupid." Vernon commented.

"No, not something stupid." Seungkwan agreed.

Vernon looked at him funny. "You're been very nice to me." He remarked.

"You're drunk, and, besides," Seungkwan smiled down at the puppy. "We're not alone now."

He and Vernon got settled down with the puppy in the sitting room. The little creature went off to sleep in it's blankets, and, first thing in the morning, Seungkwan was going to go an roganize a few things for it while Vernon had a sleep-in and had a pig-worth's of bacon and a couple of loaves of toasted bread.

"Got somethin' to tell ya." Vernon slurred just very, very slightly.

"Yeah?" Seungkwan asked.

"Boss wants..." Vernon paused and belched into his elbow. Seungkwan rolled his eyes. Lovely. "Boss is gettin' old, and...he might have pancreatic cancer. Cancer in his pan...pancreas. Whatever the fuck that is." Vernon leaned back against the couch. His eyes closed. "His wife is getting old too. In the WI and all of that. He wants me and one of the other guys to look after it...sort of run it for a couple of months." Vernon opened his eyes somewhat blearily. "And, if he can't do anymore...he's going to leave the business to me."

-

"Right, right, I have to go...yes, goodbye. Yes, have a goodnight too. See you later." Wonwoo got off the phone to Soonyoung who had explained to him about the mysterious and lightening quick romantic circumstances of Jihoon and this woman named Madeleine. Now, it was his turn to relay it to everyone else.

Wonwoo started by age listing.

He called Seungcheol.

"Oh, hey, mate." There seemed to be a tinge of relief in Seungcheol's tone. Wonwoo's eyebrows briefly raised. Ok. 

"Sit down, I've got something to tell you. I don't know if Gyu already has, but, if he has, this is it explained by someone who isn't a maniac."

Seungcheol laughed. "No one's got a terminal illness?" He asked.

"No, much more cheerful than that." Wonwoo answered. "Jihoon's getting married."

"I'm sorry, what the fuck?" Seungcheol sounded like he choked on his own spit. "HE WAS NEARLY DEAD LAST WEEK!"

Dread settled in the pit of Jeonghan's stomach as a text came through to his phone. Especially seeing as it was from Seungcheol's phone number. 

Go on, get yourself together, a voice inside Jeonghan murmured. Have a look. It'll be alright.

Jeonghan really didn't want to read Seungcheol's message and then have Seungcheol know that he had seen it. 

Whatever it was, it could all wait until they were home later, right?

Another text came through half hour later. It was from Wonwoo. Jeonghan read that one.

PICK UP YOUR PHONE YOU DAFT GIT SEUNGCHEOL WANTS ME TO TELL YOU HE ISN'T PICKING A FIGHT, HE'S JUST TRYING TO TELL YOU - ALONG WITH ME - THAT JIHOON'S GETTING MARRIED TO ONE OF THE NURSES FROM THE CARDIOLOGY UNIT CALLED YEH MADELEINE WITH MEASUREMENTS THE POPORTIONS OF THE VERY SEXY NIGELLA LAWSON'S

Jeonghan dropped his phone out of shock.

But who the fuck was Nigella Lawson?

-

Junhui blinked. "He is not." He said to Wonwoo.

"He is."

"You've got be fucking kidding me."

"No."

"Fucking Jesus."

"It's not going to be a Church wedding, remember, it's Jihoon." Wonwoo almost chuckled. "He's never gotten over that priest making that short joke."

"I wonder if that Priest's testicles ever healed once Jihoon smacked the shit out of him." Junhui remarked. Surprisingly, he found himself laughing. Who'd have thought that Wonwoo could have made him laugh? "Woo, can I tell you something?"

"Yeah, Jun, sure. You know me."

"I'm going back to Australia for a bit."

"Won't Minghao mind?"

"I don't think he's very concerned about me at all."

A soft, comfortable silence despite the matter at hand of conversation filled them up for a few moments. "When you're ready to tell me what has happened, I'll be around." Wonwoo murmured.

Junhui briefly closed his eyes. He had just booked a flight back to Australia. He was going to have to call Vanessa Morrobito and ask if he could stay back at the accomodation that he had had when he had been there in Australia initially. Suddenly, he didn't want to leave. He wanted to know what was going on with all the people who had helped him and had been with him all the while he had grown up and into a man. "Thanks, mate." Junhui managed softly. It was really all he could say. Because Wonwoo was right. He wasn't quite sure if he could manage to get it out, yet.

-

"Yeah, I know, so does Seokmin." Soonyoung said to Wonwoo. "We were the back-up crew for the starry-eyed Jihoon with a record player for the event; I don't think the Seoul City Hospital Cardiology Centre has ever seen an event like this."

"So, take Seokmin off my list, then?" Wonwoo remarked.

"Yeah, probably be best." Soonyoung laughed. "I feel really happy."

"It's a wedding thing." Wonwoo said. "Wedding's always make people happy."

-

And Jihoon doesn't know that half his mates might not be able to turn up at the wedding because I've caused an absolute fucking disaster, Minghao thought very sadly as Wonwoo told him about Jihoon's surprise up-coming nuptials.

"Do you know what she looks like?" Minghao offered up. It was the only thing he could think of. And, the way Wonwoo was being kind to him - well, if not kind, perfectly normal - it seemed he didn't know anything about what had happened.

"Apparently she's immensely tall, has quite a full but attractive figure, curiously polynesian features, thick black hair, and, she obviously adores Jihoon."

Minghao smiled. There was this feeling inside of him. It was just after Sylvia died, and, he realized that even though she had killed herself and had left him...she still loved him.

I love you, Minghao thought to himself, talking to her then, just the two of them, there own little moment. He looked across his dining room and saw her on the other side of the table in the hall to the kitchen. She was in one of her favourite light lavender woolen skirts that went down to her ankles and one of her wrap-waist wool cardigans that were thin stripes of lavender, white, and the softest light green. She nodded to him with a smile on her face.

Minghao nearly began to cry. It had been months, but, he wasn't ok. No one could be ok after that, surely.

"She sounds lovely." Minghao told Jihoon.

"She sounds like a Mrs. Jihoon sort of lady." Wonwoo remarked airily.

Minghao chuckled. "Yeah, she does."

-

"HAL-LE-LU-JAH! HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH! HAL-LE-LU-JAH!" Joyously happy and immensely loud singing filled up the phone line.

Wonwoo held his mobile phone a foot away from his ear. 

That had been Vernon's response.

Wonwoo could hear Vernon in the background yelling to all his work-mates and his boss about Jihoon "in the manner of getting hitched and his balls grabbed".

Oh, fucking hell, Wonwoo thought.

"Hey, Woo, mate, you still there?" Vernon sounded like sunshine as he talked down the phone line.

"Yes, Vernon." Wonwoo answered.

"Aw, this is goanna be fuckin' smashin' mate. See you later, we're gotta get on an be connivin' fuckers."

He truly is happy and excited, Wonwoo thought. He's speaking the shittest Korean I've ever heard in my life


	31. THIRTY-ONE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jihoon and Madeleine's wedding date is set, but, new worries arise; will Madeleine be happy to move into his house and give up her own, and, who will be the best man? Seokmin or Soonyoung? Meanwhile, Seungcheol tells Jihoon about his situation at home which sets off a complete and utter explosion. Joshua comes to see Minghao for the first time in quite a while

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, we have a update! I couldn't think of anything to write for a few days, but, here we are. I hope you like it :)

The wedding date was set for the first day of Autumn. Madeleine's dress was nearly finished been decked out, and, all the boys suits had finished been made. The air was filled with promise. Jihoon was floating about as he juggled client's floating bank-balances and grilled them ragged over the ideaology of the avasion of the government and it's tax requirements by registering money through a religion or in a off-shore bank account.

But, despite his happiness, there were a few small problems.

Jihoon needed to stay at his adjoined residence and office, so, Madeleine would have to move in with him. It was no good been married and living apart, was there?

Another thing. Who was going to be the best man?

Soonyoung or Seokmin?

Jihoon began to dread the thought, and, soon, the thought made dread fill up within him. 

Oh...fucking shite.

-

Jihoon got talking to Seungcheol about that.

"But you've booked the venue up in Gyreongsan and all that, right?" Seungcheol checked. Jihoon nodded. He hadn't got around to asking yet, but, something had happened. Seungcheol was sickly pale, grey-eyed, grey under-eyed, and obviously very, very tired and otherwise worn out. 

"You couldn't just elope at a registary office or something can you?" Seungcheol asked. "Save the bother and the expense?"

"You are kidding me." Jihoon said. "Maddie's parents have dished out at least a 75% chunk for this wedding because the brides family has to pay even though I offered to pay for the whole thing - I still have to check it over, I might be able to claim back that 75% for them off their wealth tax or property rates or something. Oh, and Seungkwan will have got a new hat by now."

Seungcheol laughed. "Aren't you worried about the Stag do?"

Jihoon blinked. Oh, shit. He hadn't thought about that.

"Right, enough about me, what are you up to?" Jihoon asked. Seungcheol's expressin fell slightly.

"Just the usual stuff, nothin' else." Seungcheol evasively replied. Jihoon frowned. He knew Seungcheol was lying. He was an expert on lying. He had clients that lied to him constantly about where their suspicious amount of monies came from, and, what they were going to do with them. All his job of course. And, of course, the clients wouldn't be the ones with their heads on the fianicial crimes chopping block, would they?

"You can tell me, come on, Cheol." Jihoon said. "How long have we known each other?" He patted Seungcheol's shoulder. "Is it Jeonghan and Josh?"

Seungcheol looked at Jihoon with a side-long balefullness. "Oh, Jihoon." He said. "You wouldn't believe the shit that has gone since you went into hospital."

-

Jihoon stormed up the stairs and then the hallway to where the boys apartment was. Seungcheol trailed in his wake, if currently two floors below. Jihoon knew he should keep in control of his nerves, because, nerves = heart health and bad heart health = long stay in hospital under the bitter gaze of that dragon-like Matron bitch of Madeleine's. 

He knocked furiously at the front door. He almost could hear Seungcheol's panting breath and wheezing as he tried to get up the stairs quicker than someone with a heart condition.

"YOU FUCKING COCK!" Jihoon bellowed as Jeonghan opened the front door. Poor Jeonghan nearly fell down in fright. "WHERE THE FUCK IS THE BIBLE-BASHING BLESSED CUNT -?!"

-

Junhui looked down. A text had just beeped through on his phone. He turned the text alert system onto silence. There was a old couple in the seats across the aisle; he didn't want them getting bothered.

It was from Seungcheol.

IT'S ALL KICKING OFF, MATE! HOONIE'S DONE HIS NUT ABOUT JOSHUA!\par  
Junhui regarded his phone and what to text back.

SERVES HIM, RIGHT, Junhui texted back before turning off his phone.

-

Jeonghan helped Joshua clean up his bloody face in the bathroom from where Jihoon had smacked him about the face with a cooking spatula. Jeonghan had finished unloading and nearly packing away the contents of the bloody dishwasher when Jihoon had come through like a little tornado roaring his head off.

Jihoon had left with the sincere and roared promise of, "NOW I'M GOING TO GO AND SEE THAT CHINESE CUNT!"

"It's been quite a nice life, recently?" Joshua remarked to Jeonghan dereseively as his nose and mouth just didn't seem to want to stop bleeding.

"I know, Shua..." Jeonghan went to get a fresh towel for Joshua. He encountered Seungcheol lingering in the hallway, not knowing what to do.

"Why did you have to do that?" Jeonghan asked Seungcheol lowly. "There was no need. No need at all. Grow the fuck up."

-

Minghao and Jihoon lay down on the floor of his sitting room.

"What really happened in Wales?" Jihoon asked, soft-toned. His whole body was killing him. "You weren't like this before."

"I don't think I'm even the same person as before." Minghao answered.

"Can you try?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

Minghao's head tipped to the side. He peered at Jihoon. "I swear she took a bit of me with her." Briefly, Minghao thought it was Sylvia lying beside him, not Jihoon. Her clothes had changed again, like they would if she was still alive. Properly alive. Black moleskin slip-dress with the nakle-length hem and a black jersey turtleneck that fitted her quite tightly. Her skin had one of it's characteristic breakouts, and her dark lipstick had faded down to a lighter, summery colour through having her usual copious amounts of cups of tea. Same thick black eyebrows, same dark eyes.

"You didn't deserve that." Jihoon said. "I'm sorry about that. Really."

Minghao felt very silent inside. "I could really hate her sometimes, but...I love her." He swallowed. "It's hard to be in love. Stay in love. I came to find after a while...that it wasn't as easy to love someone else as much as I had loved her. And, it wasn't though as I was rushing around for someone to take her place. No. No one's going to take her place. I don't want someone to because they couldn't. And as for Josh..." Minghao trailed off. "I just wanted him. Needed him."

"Hao, can I just say something, yeah?"

Minghao internally dreaded what might come out of Jihoon's mouth.

"I think a lot of things you do are because you're really sad, and...you're very lonely." Jihoon blinked slowly. "And I'm sorry that no one in the whole wide world believes or can understand how much you did love her."

-

Jihoon left with a promise from Minghao that he would come to he and Madeleine's wedding. Jihoon just hadn't been able to go ballistic at him like he had had Joshua. The energy had been there first for Joshua, and, then...when he had first came upon Minghao's doorstep, Minghao had been silent and thin and withdrawn, cross-armed and leaning against the doorway silently, hollowly.

"I know what you're here about." Minghao dry, cracked lips had murmured. 

Jihoon hadn't been able to do it.

-

"No, I think you've done enough."

"Shut up."

"What?"

"I said shut up." Jihoon repeated sternly. "Don't let me in then, but, all three of you come to my wedding and you fucking happy and everything is going to be wonderful because if Maddie so much has feels uncomfortable with you lot or has her day ruined I will cut the lot of you up into fourteen pieces with a fucking axe, do you understand?"

-

Without any of them realizing, Joshua pinched Seungcheol's car-keys from the small ceramic bowl on the kitchen island and went around to see Minghao.

-

Minghao was asleep upstairs in his bed when he had heard knocking at his front door. The very thought of any more issue to come and made him bury his head under the pillows. 

"Minghao, it's Joshua, can you let me in?" Joshua's voice called out. Minghao bolted upright before grabbing his dressing down and racing downstairs as fast as he could. He willed for it to just be Joshua and not another one of their group.

Minghao was careful not to throw the door open so Joshua didn't get his face smashed, but, at the first sight of Joshua with indeed his face smashed, Minghao felt himself drop slightly.

"Hey." Thinking as thought the two of them were one, Minghao opened up his arms and Joshua cleanly stepped into them. Minghao had really needed a hug. Especially from Joshua.

"It's nice seeing you again." Minghao mumbled into Joshua's hair.

"You two, Hao."


	32. THIRTY-TWO

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The families and friends rush to the mountains for Jihoon and Madeleine's wedding, and, on a scale of epic proportions, they all find out what it is that makes Madeleine look the way she does. Joshua and Seungcheol patch things up, and, Jihoon refuses a stag party...until one is done nonetheless. Joshua and Minghao officially get together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The story-line here; it is actually a matter of fact. There were Chinese soldiers in the second world war who met and married Scottish and English women via the conflict in foreign lands, and, in Wales, there is quite a lot of specifically Korean people as far as East-Asian emigration stands. You very rarely see a Asian person that is not specifically Korean. The ANZAC is the shortened name for adjoined Australian and New Zealand forces during the conflict, of, which, there was Australian Aboriginal, Torre Strait Islander, and Native Maori, and Polynesian involvement

It was the last day of summer, and, the day before Jihoon and Madeleine's wedding. The day before everyone and everything imaginable had been bundled into cars and onto trains to go up to the Gyreongsan Mountains. 

Junhui was not able to come to the wedding, been in Australia, but he had sent a couple of wedding gifts in advance, plus, a huge cheque.

It seems he got paid a quadrupled wage in the land down under.

He had promised to call the marrying couple on the day, plus, in the not too distant future, Seungcheol, Jeonghan, Joshua and Minghao.

"Are we not allowed to see Maddie in her dress?" Seokmin asked. All of the wedding guests - and there seemed to be a ten ton more from Madeleine's side than Jihoon's, and they all looked like Madeleine - were staying in hotel and/or B&B accomodation. All of them were quite interested in Madeleine's relitives. Specifically for one purpose. Her family were Polynesian-Maori except for Madeleine's paternal Grandfather who was Korean, giving the name "Yeh". That had been a marriage that had come around through ANZAC involvement in the Second World War, and, the Korean War. All Madeleine's reltivies were dark-skinned, incredibly tall, very strong, and very threatening - seemingly - until they smiled. It was a bit unsettling until you got used to it. It had been a nice relief for Joshua and Vernon to be able to get along with some people who spoke fluent English, even if their accent did make them pronounce "fish" like "fush", "oh, shit" like "ah shut" and "Jihoon" like "Yaoon" or "Jioon". 

"Back where we come from -" Vernon guestered with his thumb to himself and Joshua. "Groom's not supposed to see the Bride 'til she's coming up the aisle."

"So, can we see her?" Soonyoung said.

Vernon shrugged. "Dunno, mate." He answered.

"Oh, you're useless." Soonyoung crossed his arms.

-

Every single man in Madeleine's family absolutely towered over Jihoon. All of them were about six foot three or over. They truly were gigantic.

Jihoon tried not to feel...uncomfortable...in their presence.

"You nervous about the big day?" Madeleine's Father asked Jihoon. Jihoon was currently walking down the street with his future father-in-law and his two brothers. They were attracting stares. Jihoon thought he probably looked like a little boy that was been abducted beside the men in Madeleine's family. The only small person in Madeleine's family was her Korean Grandfather, Yeh Hwaeon, now ninety-four years old. Madeleine's Grandmother was a half-Anglo, half-Maori nurse that had joined the ANZAC war effort through the red cross, and, their children - Madeleine's Father and Uncles - had all married either Maori people or Mix-ethnic Koreans. 

"Just as long as she's happy." Jihoon answered.

"You happy too, yeah?" Madeleine's Father clapped his hand over Jihoon's shoulder, but, the impact was so strong that it nearly knocked Jihoon over. The uncles tutted and picked him up, huge and dark-skinned and hairy hands and arms going under his armpits and elbows.

"You can tell he's an accountant just by looking at me, can't ya?" One of the uncles murmured over Jihoon's head to Madeleine's Father and the other brother.

-

"Oh, I'm so glad you said that." Jeonghan said as Jihoon finished telling them about the incident with Madeleine's Uncles and Father earlier.

"Why?" Jihoon quipped.

"He nearly knocked me over to." Jeonghan blushed slightly.

Everyone laughed. \- "Josh, can you come here for a minute?" Joshua followed Seungcheol outside into the garden courtyard of the village hotel they were staying at. Seungcheol was in his black hoodie and jeans, and, no one had told him that he had lipstick on his cheek from where Chan's girlfriend - Christine-Elena - had bounded over and had chattered on to him in her Scandinavian language before kissing his cheek and calling him something. With Chan's ears getting sharper to Christine-Elena's chattering, they had figured out what she had called Seungcheol: "The very sad Dadda bear." "You alright?" Seungcheol quipped to him, hands shoved deep into his pockets. Joshua gazed at Seungcheol. He almost smiled, but, something in his chest broke itself up slightly. "You know what Chrissie said to you earlier?" Joshua remarked softly, looking at Seungcheol. "What?" Seungcheol shrugged. "The very sad Dadda bear." Joshua answered. Seungcheol looked quite stark before looking straight down to the ground. Joshua took a few steps closer to him and stepped up lightly on his toes, his chin resting on the top of Seungcheol's head. "Let's have a nice wedding, eh?" Joshua shifted his head so it lay on his side on top of Seungcheol's. "I think Maori's do their hukkah thing at weddings too." He smiled. "Everyone'll shit themselves out of fright. And Maddie'll have to carry Jihoon over the threshold." Seungcheol straightened up, but, he tucked Joshua into his side and they wandered about through the extensive gardens - looking more like a botanical reserve than a private residential garden - in the darkness. "You won't believe what Vernon said Madeleine's Dad said earlier." "What?" Joshua hummed. "We'll have to tie a plank across the boy's arse, otherwise we'll never see him again." Both Joshua and Seungcheol nearly pissed themselves laughing. \- "'Ey-ah, you, love, come here, please, need your help." Chan felt something significantly warm his nerves at the sight of Christine-Elena in the dress she was going to wear to Madeleine and Jihoon's wedding. It was a silver pale silver linen petticoat dress with a sash tied at the black, spaghetti straps, and the skirt pooled gently on the floor about her. So...is this what love feels like? Occured to Chan in a thought that wasn't quite his own voice...but it was like his own. It felt a little bit like his Grandfather's, but, he wasn't sure. Chan helped Christine-Elena get the zip on the side of her dress up. She smiled at him. She had checked earlier with Madeleine and Jihoon if they minded her coming with her Scandinavian Pagan runes on to the ceremony. They hadn't minded, so, on and off throughout the day, Chan had popped in to check on her out in the hotel's garden crushing granite and limestone pebbles until they were powder and liquifying it into a paste, much to the interest and awe of the hotel owners, staff, village locals, and other tourists. Even all of the boys were blown away. "You've got one of those..." Seokmin had to search around for the phraze in his head. "Witch queen things..." Chan had grinned. "She doesn't like the term witch." He said. "I called her that once and she went ballistic; said she was the real thing not some made-up bible-bashing rubbish." Chan's hands touched Christine-Elean's bare shoulders as they looked in the mirror in the bedroom. "You won't get cold, will you?" "Oh, nah, is good." She smiled, her white, even teeth glowing naturally in her mouth. "Besides, I have wool wrap and you to keep me warm." She frowned suddenly, but look very sweet. "You don't get so pissed with the boys either on the stag night that you vomit everywhere tomorrow morning and ruin Maddie and Hoonie's wedding, ja?" "Don't have to worry, we're not having one." Chan told her. Both of Christine-Elena's fair eyebrows came up. "Really?" She checked. "Yeah, and Jihoon's threatened us with Maori tribal war-fare style death if we even think about hiring strippers." Chan remarked. Christine-Elena burst out laughing. "You're not offended by that?" He asked about the strippers. "Oh, no, in the church in the town where I live as a child the priest had this latvian girl come and visit him every saturday." She beamed brightly. "We once found her silver-sequined bra hanging in a apple tree in the garden and lipstick on his underpants..." "What?" Chan didn't get it. "...Which I may have stole away off the washing line to show as evidence to the newspaper people in town?" Christine-Elena wriggled her shoulders and gave a "innocent as could possibly be" expression. Chan laughed, too. "You cheeky bitch." He remarked. "Fondling old priests jocks - you dirty bitch!" Christine-Elena cuddled him. \- "He's going to kill us for this." Vernon said of Jihoon to Mingyu, Minghao, Seungkwan, Soonyoung, Seokmin, and Jeonghan who had organized Jihoon's stag party. "We've got to do it, no other way." Soonyoung said. "Maybe he'll get Maddie's Dad to kill us." Mingyu suddenly sprouted. "Pfft, what could he do?" Jeonghan said. The boys then remembered that Madeleine's Dad was a six foot five man who was more Maori than Korean, that was for sure. The muscles in his arms were wider than Minghao's waist. "We're goanna fucking die." Vernon commented. "Everyone, shut up." Seokmin held up his hands. "Let's get three-quarter's pissed, and...do whatever you're supposed to do on stag nights before you can't hang out with your best mate anymore because he's got to go home to her." Those simple words suddenly and drastically lifted everyone's morale. "I'll go get Cheol, Josh, Chan, and Wonwoo." Mingyu decided. \- Jihoon had formerly decided to have an earlier night, and, to be honest, he was a bit keen on avoiding Madeleine's family. Even her Mother and Grandmother had this look in their eye that gave the conclusion that Jihoon would never master the skill of telling quite what they were thinking, and, that, they could turn on him any second. He got up and answered the door. He and Madeleine were having a fairly normal wedding and reception. A ordinariy, un-religious modern one except for two maori traditions, and, the Korean wine gourd tradition. The first of the maori traditions would be her family performing a Haka ceremony - which Jihoon knew would frighten the shit out of his lot even thought it was a meaning of respect and will - and, then, a Hangi feast. The Hangi feast was a Maori tradition where as much food as could be humanely consumed was cooked in an Earth oven for several hours. The food was getting delivered at seven 'o' clock on the wedding morning so Madeleine's Mother, Grandmother and other Maori female relations could set about the task at hand. There was no such thing as a "salad side" at a Maori Hangi. It was protein up protein with a sprinkling of protein on the top. With the couple of exceptions, Jihoon was still allowed to see the bride before the day. "Hey, love -" Jihoon said. Over the weeks, he had become accustomed to looking up to see Madeleine's face, and, he had hesitated until his eyes adjusted to the light. That had been his downfall. Within a split second, he was kidnapped. \- In the centre of the village, the preperations for the Stag do had been a wild and native affair. All of Madeleine's relitives were in their war and ceremony paint and chanting a song with bottles of beer and cigarettes everywhere, the boys had got caught up in it and were either been wrestled, hugged, carried, painted, groped, or chased by Madeleine's relations whilst Eculypt smoke bombs were thrown up into the sky. Away from where poor Jihoon was now covered in paint and white dust and in just no shirt, just his jeans with his black hair now brown with orange dirt dust, Minghao and Joshua talked together. They stood up a tree-covered side-alley by the village pub; the worn bricks were covered with flaking paint and wisteria vine, still blooming healthily through it was Autumn, now. "What's it like at home?" Minghao asked. The two of them were very close together. They couldn't be together and not be close. There was too much between them, in needing of the other, to do otherwise. "Patched things up with Cheol, but, Jeonghan's a bit clingy. He always has been, but, because we fucked around together for so long, I don't think he can quite believe it's over." Joshua tried to explain as best as he could. "Is it really over?" Minghao's hands curved around Joshua's neck. "Yeah." Joshua nodded, before smiling slightly. He bumped his nose and forehead up against Minghao's, enjoying been able to be with him again, touch him, feel him, breathe him out, breathe him out, hold him. It's all he ever wanted; all he ever needed. Just this. "Funny how you did that, eh?" Joshua mood rose until it crashe dthrough all possible ceilings as Minghao ran his tongue over Joshua's lips. "All because of your pretty bloody face..." Joshua opened his mouth and Minghao slipt his tongue inside; they kissed for a few moments until they pulled away naturally. A group of people were playing guitars and drums, and the sound of Maori native songs filled up the air. Joshua briefly wondered what the Korean villagers thought of the affair, even though all the people constructing such events were all born of a Korean man; his children, his grandchildren. "What does that mean for us, then?" Minghao asked. Joshua's thumb traced over Minghao's cheekbone. "Good things." Joshua promised. "Yeah?" Minghao's eyes searched Joshua's face. "Yeah." Joshua kissed Minghao.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is the wedding, I promise!


	33. THIRTY-THREE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The wedding day is finally here! Joshua is drilled for not intervening when Madeleine's relatives threw him into a river for a water blessing though he can't swim, Christine-Elena proposes to Chan, Jeonghan digs at Joshua for sneakily finding out the wedding song, and, Seungkwan takes care of Vernon and makes sure he doesn't look like shit for the wedding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like this! Long time coming, but I had so much fun writing this :)

"WEDDING!" Vernon, Suengkwan, Seokmin and Chan operatically sung, barging into Jihoon's hotel room, pulling the covers off of him and throwing open the curtains. A few seconds later, Joshua, Jeonghan and Seungcheol were in the room with Mingyu and Wonwoo quickly behind them. They were all still in their pyjama's or day-wear.

"No one else is to come in here, there's not enough space." Jihoon sat up, and, waited to see if he felt sick.

He blinked.

He couldn't believe it.

He was sure he was pissed last night.

Absolutely fucking smashed.

But he felt right as fucking rain.

He was getting married today and he felt wonderful despite swallowing how many litres of Maori native brew the night before and getting chucked around like a rag doll between his group of mates, some villagers, and, some of Madeleine's relitives.

"Yeah, wedding." Jihoon smiled.

"Might do you good to take an extra dose of your heart pills, mate." Vernon quipped.

"NO!" Soonyoung and Seokmin exclaimed. "He is to never do that unless he really wants to kill himself." Seokmin quickly added, looking quite frightened.

"Like I'd do anything just because he said it." Jihoon jutted his thumb to Vernon, calming Seokmin and Soonyoung down. "All of you, fuck off, I need a shower."

"Mate, you had on last night." Chan reminded him.

Jihoon suddenly blushed darkly. Oh, yeah, that was...right -

Oh shit. 

"Joshy, come here." Jihoon beckoned him but looked directly at Chan who had now paled slightly. Everyone giggled as they forced Joshua forward. Jihoon looked at Joshua. "Please remind us why you did not tell Maddie's Dad and Uncle that I couldn't swim when they decided to do a water blessing/half drown me for a joke in the river?"

"Uh..." Joshua sort of smiled, but did look a bit bashful. "Might've...been a bit busy with -"

"Minghao, yes, everyone saw, you exhibitionist cunt." Jihoon cut in. Everyone burst out laughing. Joshua grinned bashfully, a a sparkle in his eyes. No one was upset or insulted, not in the least.

"Jump in anyway if you want, mate." Mingyu said. "We'll bugger off."

"Yes, fuck off." Jihoon answered agreeably. 

They all left and shouted goodbye's and see-you-soon's over their shoulders. Jihoon rolled his eyes but was touched as he stepped in under the hot shower water.

The big day was finally here.

And it was going to be wonderful.

Absolutely bloody wonderful.

Jihoon smiled to himself.

-

The ceremony was being held at just before dusk so as Jihoon and Madeleine said their vowels, the gold hour would have just ended, and, the mauve and navy sky with the stars out would be the backdrop for the first night of their marriage. "There we are..." Seungkwan checked over Vernon in his suit. 

"Right now, this is happening to one of everyone." Vernon said as he held out his arms and let Seungkwan observe him.

"What do you mean?" Seungkwan asked.

"Jeonghan will be fussing over Josh or the other way around, Soonyoung and Seokmin will be checking up on Jihoon, Wonwoo will make sure Mingyu's looking right, Seungcheol'll check on everyone in general, Chrissie will make sure Chan looks nice, Minghao would gloat on the idea that he got his work better done than Junhui would have and you're looking after me."

"Well, I definitely have to give a hand somehow then when everyone else has got someone." Seungkwan smiled. "I always thought Soonyoung would be the first one to tie the knot..."

"You know, I used to think that too." Vernon said. "But then I gave up the idea of that and instead confirmed my belief that he's a lunatic."

Seungkwan laughed. Seungkwan been Seungkwan, he had the palest pink peonie flower tucked in the handkerchief pocket of his jacket. Vernon had just made sure he smelt nice, his house didn't look shithouse, had a shave, and, had clean shoes. 

"What are the names again?" He asked. Vernon snorted a laugh.

"Maddie's Dad is Wiremu, the middle Uncle is Rawiri, and the oldest Uncle is Manaia. Maddie's Mum is Aaaria-Rui, and Maddie's Grandmother is Kahurangi. The Korean Grandmother is Jimin, and, don't forget again." Vernon told Seungkwan.

-

It was finally time. Madeleine's family, nursing colleagues, matron, friends, university lecturers, and friends of her Grandmother filled up the right side of the asile, while Jihoon's parents, Seungcheol, Jeonghan, Joshua, Soonyoung, Wonwoo, Seokmin, Mingyu, Minghao, Seungkwan, Vernon, Chan, and Christine-Elena filled up the left side. It wasn't nearly as full as Madeleine's side, and, for Jihoon's sake, Wonwoo whispered around to them that he hoped Madeleine's family didn't think it as a mark on Jihoon's character. 

"You reckon the wedding song will be Elvis?" Seungcheol murmured to Joshua who was sitting in front of Seungcheol and Jeonghan with Minghao. 

Joshua's head turned to the side. "The 1975 by The 1975 from their Music For Cars album." He said.

"You fucking cheat." Jeonghan opined. Minghao grinned. While most of them were in two piece dark coloured suits - one, it was Jihoon's wedding, and, two, he was marrying a girl from a nearly entire Maori tribe, and a bunch of boys dressing flamboyantly would not be well recieved - Minghao was wearing a long and dark crepe robe-cardigan, with loose tailored trousers and a button up shirt without a collar. 

Before Madeleine went up the aisle, fires were lit in standing stone cauldrons, and, Madeleine's female relitives made a beat against animal skin drums with their hands and bone instruments. They were not able to have their native tattoo's without consequence, so, the un-tattooed antive men had their runes drawn on them with the tattoo pain, across the surface of their skin instead of embedded into it. With a shriek, they begun the Haka, their tongues coming out of their mouths and their eyes stretching wide open as their lungs roared out animalistically and they stomped their feet into the ground. They clapped their huge hands and beat them in round fists against their thick, muscled chests. Jeonghan unconciously tucked himself in closer to Seungcheol and Seungkwan did the same with Vernon. Minghao, Jihoon and Wonwoo had the maturity to watch over the affair gracefully and applauded when the Haka ceremony ended.

A soft, cooing cry of music filled up the air, after the Haka ceremony; mainly the younger reltiives of Madeleine who had appeared so angry and vicious, picked up guitars and portible pianos and keyboards and synthesis machines. Their dark, almond-shaped eyes shone lovingly as Madeleine, arm in arm with both her Mother and Father, began her walk up the aisle.

She looked absolutely breathtaking.

"Oh, Chan, hvad en smuk dame Jihoon har." Christine-Elena whispered to Chan, touching the inside of his thigh and resting her head against his shoulder. What a pretty lady Jihoon has. 

Madeleine was wearing a white lace dress that clung to her figure with a high-neck, long-sleeves, and a ankle length hair with a small train behind. She didn't wear a veil, but, her thick, textured, Maori-ethnic hair had roses, ivy, lavender and peonies threaded through it all the way down. She had her antive tattoos drawn on her hands and the back of her hands, and wore no make-up. The instrumental music soared up into the air, and it was so beautiful.

"Go down

Soft sound," One of Madeleine's male cousins sang murmuredly.

"Midnight..."

"You noticed how he didn't lick either you or me to be the best man and Maddies bridesmaids are conveniently occupied?" Soonyoung quipped to Seokmin. They looked at each other.

"He didn't want us to fight so even Madrid ditched her bridesmaids so it didn't look off-kilter?" Seokmin echoed quietly. Soonyoung nodded.

"Conniving git." Seokmin whispered. Soonyoung nearly pissed himself laughing by trying not to laugh.

Car lights..."

Minghao chucked his chin nearly imperceptibly, silent saying to Joshua at how proud and happy and in love Jihoon looked. 

"Playing with the air

Breathing in the air..."

"Our wedding be just as good as this." Christine-Elena murmured. "Just more Pagan."

"I'm sorry?" Chan whispered, his eyes going wide. He really didn't want to interrupt Jihoon's wedding but he had to do this. Christine-Elena's albino-like eyes glowed intimately.

"Jeg vil giftes med dig." She told him. I want to marry you.

"Go down

Soft sound

Step into your skin?

I'd rather jump in your bones..."

As Madeleine made it to the top of the aisle and took Jihoon's hands in front of the celebrant, the last line of the song played out, and, it was sung again as they shared their first kiss as a married couple after the celebrant pronounced them as husband and wife.

"Taking up your mouth so your breathe through your nose..."

Above the bridge and groom at the wedding altar, flower petals and leaves poured down from the sky from a venter set up earlier. They laughed and smiled, and everyone couldn't help but lose it slightly at the sight of how Madeleine bent down to talk to Jihoon and kiss him again, and how he only came up to her breasts - barely - when they stood properly.


	34. THIRTY-FOUR

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joshua asked Minghao when he last messed around with Mingyu and Minghao asks Joshua when he last screwed Jeonghan. Both of them lie. Woosung tells Wonwoo he loves him for the first time, Jeonghan comes back to model for Minghao, Christine-Elena and Chan agree to get hitched, and, Jihoon settles down for his wedding night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think the proposal scene between Chan and Christine-Elena is one of the most transcendent things I have ever written. Actually, writing this whole chapter...I felt every part of it. I can't do it, obviously, with the coronavirus on, but, if only I could make it into a film. This whole work was based on a book I wrote, I just made it into a fanfic so I could get some reads :) I've been too nervous to go to an actual publisher

"When was the last time that you messed around with Mingyu?" Joshua asked Minghao. They lay together naked in the bed in Joshua's hotel room. Jeonghan and Seungcheol were sharing a double single further up the hall. The two of them hadn't had sex. They just liked getting naked with one another, and been in that state. 

"When was the last time you messed around with Jeonghan?" Minghao asked in return.

Joshua believe honesty was the best policy, but, he had lived long enough to cause some damage, and he had lived long enough to learn when tact was needed. "Months. I just wanted you. Want you." Joshua said. 

Unbeknowest to Joshua, Minghao also lied. "The day Junhui first moved in." He said. "So long ago..."

The two of them shifted their bodies closer together; they had been only centimeters off each other before but, now, their skin melded into the others. "Can you get inside of me?" Minghao asked Joshua. Joshua and Minghao kissed slow and deep for a few minutes, the two of them just needing the other one with a intensity that burned hotter and more powerful than the sun. Minghao put his leg over Joshua's, the inside of his bare thigh pressed up against Joshua's hip. Without any preperation or protection, Joshua put his cock up inside Minghao. Minghao moaned into Joshua's neck, and, he felt Joshua manually adjust his body around his cock, spreading one half of him a little bit wider before it was done.

The bond was made. Minghao and Joshua lay there together, made as one.

-

Wonwoo called Woosung. He didn't realize how much he needed to hear the sound of Woosung's voice until the man answered the line. 

"Wonu, hey." Woosung answered warmly. Wonwoo's stomach flipped.

"Hello." He answered. "Bridge and Groom are happy. Their wedding photographs are going to be hilarious, I think. When Jihoon stands beside the now Mrs. Li Jihoon, his head barely comes up to her chest, which, I might add is hu-huge!"

Woosung laughed. "Anyone flinch during the Haka?" He asked. Wonwoo had told him all about it.

"Jihoon's parents, Jeonghan, and Seungkwan." Wonwoo replied. Woosung laughed again.

"Who looked the best?" Woosung quipped.

"Bride looked ravishing, Seungkwan had a flower in his jacket, Minghao look artisan, rich, cold, and bisexual - a robe-cardian like jacket, wide-legged trousers, button-up shirt with no collar - you know the sort. Vernon did not wear a woollen hat - for the first time in living memory - no one had food stuck in their teeth, and, I'd say I looked the best." 

Woosung chuckled apprectively. "I'm sure of it." He hummed softly. "I miss you." He told Wonwoo. Wonwoo smiled to himself.

"We would have been in a tent then, if you had come." Wonwoo said. "Every B&B and hotel in the village is booked out with the wedding on."

"I wouldn't have minded, as long as I had your body." Woosung told him. Wonwoo felt a familiar, spiritual like warmth flood from his brain down through his veins to his fingertips and his toes, making him feel like an ethereal being Nothing around him was quite real anymore. Not the double-single's hotel room he and Mingyu were sharing, not Jihoon and Madeleine's wedding, not anything at all. Just Woosung on the other end of the phone line. Wonwoo almost wished he was there with Woosung at that moment, but, right then, there was something so magical, so visceral, about being away from him but still feeling him a level that was utterly transcending. 

"Don't talk like this now, I'll be home tomorrow once Jihoon and Madeleine get sent off for their honeymoon." Wonwoo said. He didn't want Woosung to stop, of course he didn't. But, at the end of it all, he was in the double-single's hotel room which Mingyu could enter back into any moment, and, then, Wonwoo would really have to leave, falling short. Lose that feeling physically, but having it all night long, the bright, alive feeling of fingertips running through his hair and down his neck and cheekbones even though it would just be he and Mingyu in the hotel room, and, Mingyu would be safely tucked away in his own bed. 

"I know, but I want you now." Woosung softly answered. Wonwoo walked across the length of he and Mingyu's double-single's room, and turned off the ceiling lights so it was pleasantly dark. He leant against the bay-window-sill and looked out through the glass to the garden below where the remains of the wedding reception - Jihoon's parents, Madeleine's parents, uncles, aunts, and grandparents - were talking together in chairs with wine and beer around a bonfire, just having delivered their last duty as a parent for Jihoon's parents, but, Madeleine's assuring them there was so much more to come. Grandpa and Nanna duties. Madeleine's parents saying Nanna like Nunna. Wonwoo smiled a little bit. Maybe he could change his mind.

"You want everything." He whispered to Woosung.

"Not everything." Woosung said. "Just you."

Wonwoo closed his eyes, bowing his head slightly. Mingyu could not come back right now; none of the world was allowed back in right now. Wonwoo just wanted to stay in this world forever. The world he and Woosung had made for themselves. It was all he wanted right now. Just this. The feeling of Woosung's arms. "What do you want of me?" Wonwoo thumbed the bridge of his nose for a moment. 

There was a few moments of silence on the other end of the line that had Wonwoo nearly worried, panicking, for those short, few moments. "...Almost everything." Woosung said.

Wonwoo felt the earth crash around him with breathtaking, devestating beauty. It was beyond belief. His body nearly ripped itself apart with shock but with the transcending feeling of completeion that suddenly overcome it. Wonwoo couldn't feel where he was, sense anything else bar this.

"I love you." He told Woosung, fingertips touching the hollow of his throat where his button-up shirt was open that little bit at the collar, the tie taken off and in his pocket since the wedding ceremony.

"I love you." Woosung replied.

-

"Han, can I have a word?" Minghao asked, finding Jeonghan sitting down by the lake where poor old Jihoon had been thrown into the night before. Jeonghan was obviously a bit drunk, but, he was still coherent. Coherent enough to understand what Minghao was going to ask him.

"Yeah, sure, sit down with me." Jeonghan answered. His tie was gone, and his jacket was draped over the back of the park bench amongst the weeping willow and Elm trees. Only been the first days of Autumn, everything still looked exactly as it did in the Spring. The air was a nice, warm temperature, and, Minghao thought that there couldn't have been a better day, a better evening, to get married on than this. Minghao glanced at the exposed parts of Jeonghan's neck, throat and chest from where his shirt was opened perhaps that one button too far. Minghao smiled to himself. It was always like that. One button to many, with either men or women.

"Would you come back doing model and film work for me?" Minghao straight-forwardly put. Jeonghan's head turned to the side. His silvery-blonde long hair was pulled up in a bun from a side-part, and a length of his hair fell down at one side, and, a few trendles had now started to come down. Minghao could tell that at some point in the evening Jeonghan had gone to run his hand through his hair and then remembered, "Oh, shit, wait, it's up."

"Can I ask you something first?" Jeonghan quipped.

"Yeah." Minghao said.

"No, it's about Sylvia Jenkins." Jeonghan's eyes searched Minghao's face.

"Oh, yeah, I see." Minghao glanced over to the lake for a few moments, before looking back to Jeonghan and apologising. "It's alright. Ask what you want."

"You sort of said one day years ago but never really said." Jeonghan explained. "How it went was that you and her were out somewhere and she lit the wrong end of her cigarette, and a nun walked past and told her she was a disgusting foreigner or something like that so you and her bought a couple of bottles of wine, drank it all, and smashed the nunnery stained-glass windows by throwing the bottles through them before getting into a cab. You were saying how beautiful she looked with her temporary dreadlocks and her lennon glasses and red lipstick in a denim jacket, smoking a cigarette out of the back window of the cab."

Minghao smiled. "Got it in one." A sudden hope rose in his chest when Jeonghan nodded, and said he'd come back and work for Minghao. They sat in happy silence for a little while.

Jeonghan grinned suddenly. "That's so beautiful."

-

"Stupid bloody building." With a fag half hanging out of her mouth, Christine-Elena pointed up to the wooden-plank cathedral that was a still-attended relic from the 1930's. Chan laughed.

"You can't be so mean about the Catholics." Chan told her.

"Yes, I fucking can, you gobshite." Christine-Elena replied candidly. Chan wrapped his arms around her waist and half-cuddled her, half-pulled her away from the direction of the church. They were walking down the Avenue Of Honour on the outskirts of the Gyreongsan village, a mark of respect for ANZAC, British and American troops and soldiers who had been peace-keeping forces throughout the first and second world wars, and, then, the Korean War. It was a hundred-and-eighty Acorn trees planted each side of a beautiful road surrounding by green, rolling landscapes full of wildflowers and stem-grasses. A tree for each soldier who had died in service in a country that was not his own. Three-hundred-and-sixty deaths just in this village alone. All of them diggers, nearly. Initally, there was a brass plate on each tree, reading the name, death-date and contributions the deceased man had made. But scumbags had stolen them long ago. 

Christine-Elena hadn't gotten cold and hadn't needed Chan's jacket, and, Chan was glad of it for two reasons. One, he thought that her rune-paint might muck off on the lining of his jacket and ruin it, and, Two, it was the most bewitching sight in the world, seeing ancient indigenous history scrawled across his lover's flawless skin. 

"Chrissie, what you were saying earlier, love..." Chan broached the subject, and Christine-Elena laugh. He really hoped she wasn't joking now. They were walking hand in hand down one side of the road, now, she let go of him and, with another laugh, went over to the other side of the road. She gazed at him across it, still walking on, tucking some of her platinum hair behind her ears. Chan scoffed indignantly and held his arms out, but, nevertheless, he went on his way too.

"So I'm going to have to shout across the road, am I?" He said.

Christine-Elena nodded cheerfully.

"You are one fucking pain in my arse." Chan told her frankly.

Christine-Elena stuck her tongue out at him and gave him the finger before lifting up her skirts and flashing her bare backside at him. Chan blinked. Suddenly his whole day - well, evening - became brighter. He didn't realise that Christine-Elena hadn't had any knickers on. Ooh, wow, suddenly, he truly did feel a lot better. 

He was still fairly frank though.

"This you and me getting married thing - are you serious?!" He shouted across the road. Christine-Elena nodded. 

"Well, we can see about that?!" He offered. She smiled, and walked across the other side of the road, but, before her bare feet touched the centre white line, a absolute cock in a Range Rover Sports - thinking the Avenue Of Honour was a great place to light up some horsepower - flew through at at least 120 kilometers per hour.

"FUCKING RETARD!" Chan hollered after it, shaking his fist, before he rushed to the centre white line where Christine-Elena was. She smiled at him, and held out her hands. He took them. They were so small and pale and soft in his rougher, darker male ones.

Chan truly felt that this was what it meant to be a man. What it felt like to be whole.

Christine-Elena wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed herself in close to him, nose to his nose and forehead to his forehead, a matter Chan had come to learn was absolutely Pagan. 

They slow-danced together down the centre of the road, and, everytime they heard the sound of a approaching car, there was enough time to hold hands and gracefully get off the road before the car went past, and, as they did, it would always be full of smiling and happy-looking people, seeing a handsome young man with a beautiful young woman, so obviously happy and in love. And, everytime a car went by, Chan and Christine-Elena went back out to the centre of that road, and danced.

-

"All done." Jihoon said with a laugh as he plucked the last flower out of Madeleine's hair. He had been standing on the bed to do the task while she sat on the edge. 

"I'll put them in a box and I'll take them down to Mamma so they get pressed." Madeleine said. To the reception, she had still worn her wedding dress but had slipped on one of her denim jackets over the top, making the look more casual in a way that made Jihoon feel just a little bit ditzy. It was still her attire at the moment. She slipped out of the bedroom and was gone for only five minutes before she came back up. 

"Hey." She smiled and hugged him, bending down quite a bit. 

"You don't have to do that." Jihoon said. "You can just pick me up if you like?"

Madeleine did. The newly married couple nearly pissed themselves laughing. Jihoon's feet hung at just above Madeleine's knees. "You married the tall woman, bub." She said, and kissed his head. She put him back down on the ground and took her jacket off. 

"It looks like it's been your Dad's, love, it's so big." Jihoon joked.

"Ah, boy, actually, it was." Madeleine told him. Jihoon laughed and went, "Oh, God!"

"Whenever I buy jeans or jackets in this country it has to be men's jeans or jackets, and, not just boy clothes, big, big, boy clothes." Madeleine gestured a mile around her glorious figure. "Fatboy slim clothes."

Jihoon laughed again. He truly did love her. He watched as Madeleine's arms rose above her head and she undid a few buttons at the back of the wedding dress's neck. The dress slowly slipped off her body and Jihoon felt the earth tip on it's axis around him.

Absolutely bloody wonderful. 

Madeleine slid into the bed beside him, and turned off the lights. Her hand went around his back, and, even though she was absolutely huge as in her height, Jihoon never felt more comfortable in his life.

He was happy.


	35. THIRTY-FIVE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minghao transforms Jeonghan for a shoot that goes viral on the internet, Jihoon ans Madeleine are in Long Island, New Zealand, for their honeymoon, and Wonwoo and Woosung go out for a date, and, it leads him to a chain of events that makes him discover just what Woosung's family is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another fresh chapter tonight after this :) what did you think of the last chapter? I really , really am so proud of the scenes I wrote for that

"I've got something a bit more drastic for you this time." Minghao told Jeonghan. Jeonghan was still fully-clothed at the moment. They walked over to the paint-washed Danish wardrobe that Sylvia had set up in one side of the studio, and, Minghao took out the dress on the hanger, but, initially, hid it behind the door from Jeonghan.

"Define drastic." Jeonghan crossed his arms.

Minghao pulled out the coathanger to Jeonghan's full view.

"Oh my God." Jeonghan barely managed, his eyes nearly popping out of his skull.

"Yeah?" Minghao was hopeful, but, deep down, he knew it was a bit foolish.

"Fucking hell no." Jeonghan shook his head. "Everyone's going to see this."

"Yes. Please." Minghao asked.

"No way." Jeonghan answered. Minghao hung the dress back up for the time being."

"That's what you said about the last one, Han." Minghao implored.

"Ok, yeah, I grant you that, but, no, not this." Jeonghan shook his head again.

Minghao raised an eyebrow delicately. "What do I have to do to convince you?" He questioned.

Jeonghan looked at him. "What are you on about?"

"What about if I tell you that I know all of this turns you on a little bit?" Minghao gestured around the studio and then pointed back at the wardrobe.

Jeonghan flushed. "Fuck off." He told Minghao.

"No, shut up and listen." Minghao said. Jeonghan blinked.

"I'm not Josh." He said.

"What has Joshua got to do with this?" Minghao asked.

"Don't boss me around like you do him." Jeonghan regretted his words immediately when Minghao's eyes flashed.

"He's my lover, you're my employee." Minghao snapped. He and Jeonghan regarded each other for a few moments.

"Oh, alright, I'll try it on." Jeonghan begrudgingly said. "But I don't know how to get it on."

"Let me help you, then." Minghao replied.

Jeonghan stripped out of his clothes in front of Minghao, and, before Jeonghan found out all the things that Minghao did to Joshua - and took pleasure in doing - it was a bit awkward but it was funny because they were all mates. Now, knowing that Minghao had seen Joshua in the lights and angles that Jeonghan had once been allowed to do also once, it felt different. Not bad, just...different.

Minghao pulled the dress back out of the wardrobe, and, gave it to Jeonghan just to hold up to his body at first to see. 

Jeonghan couldn't quite figure it out. It had a bit of fabric at the front that covered his chest, but it was backless with no side or front of the left, showing his side and stomach from his chest down to the top of his abdomen. There was a inch-wide length of fabric down his side which connected the skirt. It was floor-length with - at the front - one side of the skirt covering just his abdomen and sex with revealing his right leg, hip-bone, and, well everything. The onyl parts of his body that were covered was his left leg in it's entirety. Around the back, the material barely covered his backside, only to around the side until his left leg from the back was revealed as well. The fabric was like a black velvet. "How does it stay on me?" He asked.

"Fabric tape around the lining on the inside of the seams around the waist strip, the chest and the bit that covers up your chap." Minghao gestured to each point. "Slip it onto you, hold it place, and I'll just run my hands down it. It won't come off, either."

Jeonghan swallowed nervously, but, he did it anyway.

When Minghao completed the task, he guided Jeonghan over to look in the mirror. Jeonghan nervously walked, feeling the pull of the material around him, seeing the sight of his bare, thin legs against the paleness of the studio. When Jeonghan saw his reflection he nearly passed out.

"Oh God." He managed breathily.

"Put the dreadlocks in and it'll look great." Minghao beamed over his shoulder.

-

Jihoon and Madeleine had gone to New Zealand for their honey-moon, and, at the moment, were on Long Island. 

Jihoon waited down by the ground holding a basket, having just seen his wife climb up a century-old orchard tree like a monkey. She dropped down apples for him to catch and put in the basket. "It's a native thing." She smiled and laugh down to him. Her messy, Maori hair was down all around her body, and, the farm was owned by some of her relitives. They ran a orchard farm and vineyard up in the mountains, and, in New Zealand, it was Spring, whereas, in Korea, it was Autumn. Madeleine was running around in jeans and a linen blouse and a headscarf made of the same fabric as her blouse, wrapping her masses of hair up. They were going to be traveling around for the next two months, and, to be perfectly honest, Jihoon was loving it. 

Madeleine sat up there for a couple of minutes before calling down to him to shift out the way she didn't land on him. 

"I could catch you." Jihoon offered, holding out his arms.

"Don't be bloody stupid." Madeleine said. "If I squish you I won't be able to teach you how to surf, later."

Jihoon blinked. "Surf?"

"Yeah, boy!" Madeleine grinned broadly. "Wife's goanna teach you how to surf like a Maori dude!"

Jihoon thought his Maddie got more and more Maori everyday she was out of Korea. Her clothes were more bohemian and ethnic, her smile was bigger, her accented English was warm and relaxing, and, to be perfectly honest, Jihoon didn't mind at all.

-

Wonwoo and Woosung went out for the evening, and, when they came back to Woosung's car, they found it blocked in by two idiot drivers, in front and at back, who obviously could not drive. 

"What do we do?" Wonwoo asked. He imagined a brief scenario of a grim Woosung climbing into his car before driving into the car in front, shunting it forward a few feet, before reversing and doing the same to the car behind before opening the passenger door for Wonwoo and remarking cheerfully, "All sorted!".

Woosung just looked with his hands in his pockets. "I know those two cunts who own those cars." He pointed to the car in front which was a Porsche 911 turbo-charged racer, and, the car behind was a Mercedes SLS. "Cunts, as you can see. Buy German cars because they think they're the best and they just made cars for dictators and invested money in concerntration camps." Woosung pulled his phone out of his pocket. "Wanna cause a problem? We'll have a fucking problem."

Wonwoo felt a little bit frightened by the thunderous look on Woosung's face. \par  
"Let's go for a walk." Woosung remarked. He and Wonwoo didn't get too close or hold hands, not in the crowded city, not like that.

"Let's go in here." Woosung said randomly after five city blocks. Before Wonwoo really knew what was happening, Woosung had pushed him through the door of what appeared to be a shut-up and crumbling Edwardian-era building constructed by British Merchants and Bankers, with a battered sign overhead that it was a restaurant, but, the script was barely discernable, the letters flaked away. 

But, inside, Wonwoo couldn't believe his eyes. Everything looked as brand new and as beautiful as it did back in 1910. It had twenty-six foot high ceilings with a pressed gold-metal ceiling, roman-like pillars, velvet upholstery on the boot seats, a bar full of multicoloured glass and crystal bottles, and, polish oak floorbaords with areas of dark green carpet. There was no one else in them bar them, a tall, older man in a suit, and, a bar-tender. "Wait here with John." Woosung said. He crossed the huge floor-space of the restaurant and then up a grand staircase, before, he disappeared into the shadows. Wonwoo was left standing there until the man sitting at the table - John - said to him careful Korean to not worry, and please take a seat. John was definitely English, was skinny and in his early sixties with a hooked nosed, small-bear liked eyes, and a thin mouth in a angular face with recedeing hair.

"If people behaved more," John said easy-toned. "And complied more...life shouldn't be so difficult."

-

Two days later, Jeonghan's phone practically vibrated itself into an absolute dither. They were from Junhui and Minghao. Jeonghan momentarily wondered if they had had a blue, because, if so, he was so not getting involved or playing referee.

He had to re-read each text message three times.

Junhui: MY BOSS HAS JUST SEEN YOUR FACE GOING AROUND ON EVERY SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM IN EXISTENCE AND I'VE JUST HAD TO TELL HER THAT I KNOW YOU BECAUSE SHE WAS WONDERING WHY I WAS BATHED IN A COLD SWEAT

Jeonghan got the full explantion when he then read Minghao's texts, as he should have done in the first-place.

Minghao: I KNEW THIS WOULD BE THE ONE THAT WOULD DO IT! WE'VE GONE FUCKING INTERNATIONAL! EVERYWHERE! AUSTRALIA, AMERICA, UK, ASIA, RUSSIA, EUROPE, EVEN WHEN THERE ARE BOMBS GETTING DROPPED IN THE MIDDLE EAST! EVERYWHERE!

Jeonghan quietly turned off his phone and deliberately didn't answer for a couple of hours. He'd go around and see Minghao later and see what was going on. 

-

Minghao practically did backflips fueled by utter delight and pride, but, at the same time, he wished Jeonghan would hurry the fuck up and answer his text messages. He checked his laptop again; in the space of an hour, another five-hundred-and-half likes had come in on the instagram page for Sylvia's business and gallery that he had kept up and running since her death. "You'd be so happy," Minghao murmured to himself, talking to Sylvia. He turned around in the swivle chair at the writing desk in another section of her studios and saw her sitting cross legged on the ground in straight wool ankle-length red dress with half. sleeves and a crew neck, her lipstick the same dark shade of red as her lipstick. Her dark Welsh eyes blinked up at him. Sylvia was never one of those people that blinked and extra-ordinairy amount.

"It's going to end soon." She whispered. "People are vermin. They have no loyalty, no humanity left in them. They are just consumers, and their not earthly consumers. They're greedy, selfish, ignorant, they are pigs. Make money while you can. Give Jeonghan some of it while you can. How sweet would it be if things could stay like this forever?"

She touched her throat. Minghao noticed she didn't have any shoes or tights on. "The next project you do, make it something that will scare them, haunt them, stay with them forever." her black eyes looked back up to his. "The best way to control retards is to frighten them, and, then, remind them who it is they are to worship, and never stop."

-

Wonwoo went to see Woosung next door. 

Woosung had just made him a mug of tea and had put it down on the island bench in front of him when Wonwoo opened his mouth as asked him, "Why is a man like you living in a street like this in an area like this with a house like this? Old wood, fireplaces, back verandah with moss and lichen on the roof because it's cold and wet...I wouldn't have thought that was your thing."

Woosung came around the side of the island bench where Wonwoo sat, and sat up on the other bar stool beside him. Woosung entwined his fingers on one hand with one of Wonwoo's hands that set up on the bench. "I think I ought to tell you a few things, love." Woosung said.\par  
"Is it drugs you do or something else?" Wonwoo asked softly, simply. Wonwoo shook his head.

"You remember my Irish-Catholic Step-Father?" Woosung remarked, and Wonwoo nodded. "Well, Michael - that's his first name - was part of the IRA. Do you know what that is?"

Wonwoo said he didn't really know. "The IRA stands for Irish Republican Army and is a terrorist organization with it's main target against British Empire Rule who they insist opressed them and considered them a sub-human race. But, the IRA is made up of Irish Catholics, and, you see, Ireland is divided into two groups. Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics; they are like two seperate races. They hate each other, and they love to kill each other. The IRA...mentality, shall we say, first started in the mid-1700's but never really gained ground until the early 1900's. You never see a Irish Protestant that isn't Pro-British, and, you never see a Irish Catholic that isn't Anti-British. The IRA used to put bombs in dustbins outside schools in England and certian parts of Ireland and kill children to make a statement. One day, they put a bomb in Hyde Park iyn London and killed some of the British Queen's guards and horses. It was a bloody affair."

"It's familiar now." Wonwoo said. "Things that Josh and Vernon had said over the years."

Woosung nodded. "Well, Michael got into a severe amount of trouble with the IRA when they found out in 1978 that he had got into a relationship with a Korean woman who already had a child. So, he went to the British authorities and gave up about thirty-six IRA leaders and organizers. He came to live in England, and, then, he and my Mother married. He still retained the IRA mentality, as such. Michael made a lot of money by organizing things. That had been his job in the IRA. Finding out secrets and been paid to keep them. He interfered in Triad and Mafia business, banking, local government, everything. He's a cunt of a man. So, when I started my work, absolutely every scumbag with at least £5,000,000 in the bank came my way. That is what the cars thing the other day was. The two people who owned those cars were part of a German strain of the European Mafia who came asking me to make an investment."

Wonwoo felt quite worried. "So what actually happened?" He asked.

"I got some friends who are high-up officials in the Military to find out which club they were in and give them a fright." Woosung smiled a little bit. "These two people with their German cars - their business is stealing aircraft and military vehicles from deceased estates, collectors, and old ANZAC yards in Indonesia, The Phillipines and Indonesia before selling them overseas." He shrugged. "They were just having a go, but, really? That was intelligent. I took you down to John's place because if anyone that - unfortunately - intrudes in on my life and sees what you look like it means that a lot of people are going to have many, many problems enter their life." Woosung kissed Wonwoo's cheek. "You alright?" He asked.

"How long has it been like this?" Wonwoo asked.

"Since 1978." Woosung smiled crookedly. "No one's after me or anything; there's a lot of organized crime that liked to come into my company because they say it's "safe" and "honest". I always think it's funny how scum such as them say things like that. Nothing bad is going to happen, love."

"Are you sure?" Wonwoo asked.

"Very sure." Woosung squeezed Wonwoo's hand.


	36. THIRTY-SIX

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minghao asks Wonwoo to come and help with a project he is doing centered around a notebook that Wonwoo used to write in years ago that Minghao pinched to show Sylvia. Woosung finds out that Wonwoo was once in love, and, the fate of that relationship. Jeonghan finds out about his media storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally have the update :) I hope you like it

"Wonwoo, would you come and see me?" Minghao rang up and asked Wonwoo.

"I'm with Woosung right now." Wonwoo replied.

"Are you clothed?" Minghao inquired. He heard the chuckle of an older man in the background.

"Yes." Wonwoo answered stiffly. "What do you want?"

"You can still sing right?" Minghao remarked.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Minghao could tell that Wonwoo wished Minghao had not said that in listening distance of what would now be a very curious Woosung.

"Would you come into the studio for me?" Minghao requested. "I've got something you would be interested in?"

"Are you certain?"

"Why can't you comply?"

"Because when it becomes you and Woosung, I am choosing Woosung."

"You bitch." Minghao said just as Woosung took over Wonwoo's phone. Woosung laughed.

"Shall be there, soon." Woosung told him.

Minghao smiled to himself. He knew he shouldn't have said it, but he did. It would have the desired effect afterwards. "Of course, you're Wonu's Daddy."

"MINGHAO!" Wonwoo roared. Minghao held his phone about a foot away from his ear. "I'LL KILL YOU, YOU BASTARD!"

-

Wonwoo shrunk shamefully beside Woosung as the call from Minghao ended. It was half nine in the evening, and the two of them had agreed to start drinking their way through Woosung's drinks cabinet. Nearly all day Woosung's work had been inundated with visitors congratulating him on getting the owners of those German cars a few days before charged with a list of offences longer than the chassis of their damned vehicles. They were both half laying, half sitting together on the couch in the sitting room.

"Daddy?" Woosung remarked. Wonwoo flushed darkly.

"Absolutely not." Wonwoo told him. "I don't mean to insult you, but, I knew one of the idiots would be stupid enough at some point to make a comment like that with you being an older man."

"I'm not that much older than you." Woosung said.

"That's the point." Wonwoo tried to explain, but, then, wondered why he was even bothering. "You're supposed to - in their idiotic minds - be my...Daddy...not Grandfather." Wonwoo replied awkwardly.

Woosung grinned. "You know I was young once?" He commented. "Not that I am old - because I'm not - but I did some interesting things when I was young. I know what all the Daddy stuff is and every kink you could imagine. I did 95% of it at least once."

Wonwoo gazed at him. "What?"

Woosung half-smiled. "Maybe we'll get around to that one day." He said. "We'd better go and see Minghao, though."

"I'd rather stay here." Wonwoo's hand wrapped around Woosung's elbow. Woosung pressed his mouth against Wonwoo's for a few moments, but, he stopped Wonwoo letting it turn into a deeper one. 

"I'd rather see what he wants with you." Woosung said again to Wonwoo. Wonwoo gave in.

-

"I'll have you." Wonwoo murmured darkly to a smiling Minghao as he came through the front door on Woosung's arm. Woosung smiled and shook Minghao's hand. They went through to the studios and Woosung took a seat in one of the armchairs while Wonwoo and Minghao talked out in the hallway. Minghao held up a very ancient looking notebook that he had had in the huge pocket of his huge cardigan. It took Wonwoo only a second to recognise it. It was his. 

"I'm sorry about it now - for pinching it off you - but, I bought it to show Sylvie and she thought it was one of the best things she had ever seen. She added a few parts, so, you can't have this back." Minghao told him. Wonwoo felt his heartbeat in every part of his body.

"Which one do you want me to..." He trailed off from his question.

"Skin." Minghao answered. 

Wonwoo took the notebook out of Minghao's hand, and, he cautiously flicked through it from the front, and, then, switched to it from the back. He saw Sylvia's hand-writing in English language, and then Welsh, rarely in Korean. Wonwoo felt very sad all of a sudden. Sad for her. Sad for Minghao. "Just Skin?" Wonwoo asked.

"For now." Minghao nodded. They walked into the studio where Minghao had already set up recording equipment and the laptops to edit in the sounds together and make the over-beat for the discography afterwards. 

Wonwoo glanced nervously between Woosung and Minghao. "Can I read it for a minute?" He said to Minghao.

"No, I know you know it." Minghao said. He looked between Minghao and Woosung. Minghao asked Woosung if he'd leave. Wonwoo truly did fear Woosung would clock Minghao judging by the expression that came onto his face, but, nonetheless, he agreeably got up and left the studio. Wonwoo glared at Minghao. 

"Remember what you're doing." Minghao instructed him. Wonwoo looked down at all the music recording equipment in front of him, he realized that he hadn't done any of this for so long, having been a clerk for so long. Always typing, all hours of the day, letters and drafts and contract and invitation and other documents...double-spaced, in Cambria Math font, size 11, always. Wonwoo fixed the mixing controls and the volume level, and, adjusting the microphone closer to his mouth, he didn't even need to look at the book. It all washed back over him. He put everything out of his mind. But, something stopped him. 

The music he had written - the instrumental composition with other discographic notes - had already been created. He looked up to Minghao and said about it. Minghao smiled slightly. "She was a clever woman." He commented softly. "And I'm a clever man." 

Without recording, Wonwoo pressed play for the instrumental composition made for the chorus. His stomach twisted inside. He had wanting to hear that sound all his life. The sound he wrote out for it's creation...the soul of it. The next time, Wonwoo played the music as he sung, and, his voice was recorded for the first time. The irony was, all those years ago when he wrore it, he thought he could never quite imagine his voice by itself singing it. Even though he had wrote it about her. The sudden thought of Mia Gregrotorsky didn't hurt him like it used to, but, there was still something inside, though distant and ghost-like, as soon as he opened his mouth and sang the song he wrote for her. The song she never knew about. Was too shallow to know about. To shallow to feel it, feel him. It was why their relationship ended.

"Mia

You never said you'd go

So I've been waiting for you

Your skin, right up against mine

When times goes back past Midnight

And out at night when all the stars begin to shine

I know, I know, I know you

When the stars on your skin begin to glow

I can't help myself

I know, I know, I know you..."

Minghao gazed at Wonwoo intently and, at the same time, gently; whilst, out in the hallway, Woosung lit a cigarette, not caring very much about smoking indoors after the comment Minghao had made. He listened to the lyrics, and, it made him think about why and how he and Wonwoo's relationship and taken so slowly to develop.

Like him, Wonwoo had done all of this before.

Woosung smiled barely to himself, thumbing the bridge of his nose, curls of cigarette smoke floating up into the air.

"When the stars on your skin begin to glow

I can't help myself

I know, I know, I know you..."

-

The drive home for Wonwoo and Woosung was quiet.

"Who is she?" Woosung asked.

"No one, anymore." Wonwoo swiftly replied.

"I'm not picking a fight, Woo." Woosung reasoned.

"And I'm not lying when I say she's no one, anymore." Wonwoo bluntly answered. "Cunt of a woman..." He added lowly under his breath. "Fucking sickening bitch..."

Woosung stayed silent. This Mia must have really done something to have had Wonwoo obviously love her that much and hate her this much.

"So many women have been responsible for making men into monsters, but, no, it's never the woman's fault, every woman is perfect; every woman does not lie, does not cheat, does not fuck your life up because she's a sub-human piece of shit..." Wonwoo added quietly and bitterly. He looked out of the passenger side window. "She got addicted to drugs." Wonwoo explained to Woosung without looking to him. "Married some Russian obligarch twenty-three years older than her that has more than enough money in the world to supply her habit and her rehab and her sex. That's the story. Apart from the bit when she threatened to have me thrown out of my house with her husband's mafia connections, apparently..." Wonwoo scoffed a laugh. "Cunt." He snarled under his breath.

"What was her last name?" Woosung asked.

"Gregrotorsky." Wonwoo replied. "When she married him, she took his name - Dontraeovsky."

Woosung blinked. Oh. Oh..fuck. "Igor Dontraeovsky?" He asked. Wonwoo looked at him for the first time in five miles.

"Don't you dare tell me you know him." Wonwoo said. Woosung wasn't quite sure how he was going to tell Wonwoo this.

"I do know him." Woosung said. "In fact...he came to my Mother and Step-Father's house in Somerset for Christmas last year."

Wonwoo looked at him. "You are fucking kidding me." He said. "I thought you were supposed to be above board?" 

"I am." Woosung responded harshly, putting Wonwoo back in his place. "Michael is my Step-Father, not my Father, and it was he who is part of the IRA and was a producer for organized crime, not me. Did you not hear me say the other day how I despise those scum of the fucking earth?"

Within another half minute of driving, they were pulling into Woosung's driveway. Woosung thought that Wonwoo would elect to jump out of the car and storm across to he and Minghao's house just up the hill, but, he followed Woosung through as he un-locked the front door of his house. It seemed Wonwoo was intent on fighting him. If Wonwoo wanted to fight, Woosung could handle that.

Bring it on.

"What the hell are your family doing with them anyway -" Wonwoo only managed to say just as they got inside, but, Woosung grabbed his body and pushed it up against the wall in the hallway.

"They're not my family." Woosung said. "And, I repeat, I have nothing to do with them." Woosung eased his hands away from the grip around Wonwoo's shoulders. He and Wonwoo were left looking at each other. As Wonwoo swallowed, Woosung noticed how Wonwoo's glasses had become askew. Woosung went to right them, but, something else made him take off Wonwoo's glasses completely and leave them in the pocket of his jacket that hung on the rack in the hallway. 

"Woosung..." Wonwoo began, but, Woosung's hands curved around his neck. The hands didn't mean or intend to hurt him this time. Woosung's mouth pressed up against his, and, without been able to see clearly, it felt different. \- Jeonghan finally got around to understanding precisely what Minghao and Junhui were on about. His face and body were everywhere. Jeonghan turned off his phone and hid it away in his bedside table. What was going to happen now? A quiet thrill filled him up inside. Oh, God, what could possibly happen now?


	37. THIRTY-SEVEN

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seungcheol and Joshua nearly spew at the massive wage Jeonghan gets every week for wearing a dress - a matter of which is addressed by Jeonghan walking through the apartment in his "work clothes", also a matter of which is significant; Jeonghan develops a fetish for cross-dressing. Vanessa finds evidence that Junhui and Minghao used to be together; with Mediterranean temper, she attacks him in not telling her considering she's going to every length to get Minghao and his work in their magazine. This leads to a explosion involving Vanessa's secret Jewish Dad, and, how not all men that go with other men want to be referred to as gay or LGBT. Mingyu discusses with Chan how he never sees Wonwoo anymore, and, Seungcheol plays a key role in the development of Jeonghan's cross-dressing fetish

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've still get to write most if this chapter, but, I want to make one thing very, very clear: three of my best friends are gay men who are absolutely revolted at the "gay culture". They absolutely hate how unless they act like femme-ideaology twats, they are - I'll put it simply. Some people are happy staying in the closet, but, they don't think of it as a closet, a boundary, a jail. They think of it as their little world. And another remark from thy who knows better; a extremely large amount of gay think that other gay men ARE ARSEHOLES. YES! And what infuriates me is how all the straight people who advocate LGBT rights - DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE NATURALISM CULTURE IN THE DAY TO DAY LIFE OF BEEN A ALTERNATIVE SEXUALITY

"You sure you don't want to change out of it before we go home?" Minghao asked Jeonghan. Jeonghan shook his head.

"I want Josh and Cheol to see." He told Mingaho. 

A crack of thunder went off overhead from the stormy sky above. Minghao got a case of the giggles, and, it passed over to Jeonghan. Jeonghan was wearing a skin-tight pencil dress with hem around his ankles and a boat neck with no sleeves. The dress was navy, and was backless. Minghao had joked around before that his arse looked great in it. Jeonghan had told him to fuck off, but, he sort of thought that that was a alright remark. Jeonghan didn't think he looked bad in the dress, either. Jeonghan's platinum-toned hair was done up in a quick, messy knot on his head and he had Scandinavian style make-up worked over his features. Flawless natural skin, no lipstick, no make-up at all apart from the streaks of black coal around his eyes.

They had just finished up another day in the studio, and, it had started by Minghao giving Jeonghan his first proper pay-check, one the VAT man was never going to know about.

There was over £3000 inside the envelope. Jeonghan had nearly dropped it out of shock. He couldn't believe that there had been so much interest in Sylvia - it was termed as Sylvia's for her original work within the gallery now owned by Minghao still capturing interest - and Minghao's work that there was able to be a packet for him of that size.

"Why are you trying to cause a row?" Minghao asked Jeonghan as they hailed a cab that was going past Sylvia's studios. It pulled up obligingly at the end of the street for them.

"I'm not trying to cause a row, I just want them to see." Jeonghan grinned. "Don't be so convinced I'm being evil."

"You're always evil." Minghao commented.

"Oh, and you're not?" Jeonghan retorted.

Minghao winked.

Both Minghao and Jeonghan stopped in completely shock as someone beeped the horn of their car as they drove past. Minghao and Jeonghan gawped at each other.

"I think he thinks you're hot." Minghao pointed to the car, steadily vanishing in the distance.

"Fucking hell." Jeonghan barely managed, sliding into the back seat of the cab.

-

Minghao resolved three things. To never go in a cab again, and, get Jeonghan used to going on his motorcycle with him, arms wrapped around his waist.

And to call Junhui.

He had just had a text from a Vanessa Morrobito from Junhui's magazine asking for a interview and a photography shoot. 

Minghao was smart enough to know what that was about. 

And as far as it went -

He'd kill bloody Junhui, the interfereing parasite.

Minghao followed behind Jeonghan as he opened the door to their apartment and went inside.

"Hey." Jeonghan greeted Joshua and Seungcheol with a grin before walking through the apartment to the hall where they're bedrooms past. Joshua's mouth had dropped open and he had nearly startled himself into such a state that he had fallen off his bar-stool, and, Seungcheol had gone "Oh my fucking God..." before shouting out to any form of Deity above for "one normal fucking day, please, please, fucking, please!"

"Hello." Minghao went over to Joshua and put a arm around his shoulder, kissing his nose and then his mouth. That didn't seem to bother Seungcheol, who was still recovering from the sight of Jeonghan.

"Hey, excuse me," Seungcheol tapped Minghao's head as he and Joshua sort of kissed but sort of just stayed close together, the deep, intent, distant chemistry blooming viscerally between them even though Seungcheol was there. "But what the fuck was that?" He pointed around behind him.

"Hannie doing that for me -" Minghao also pointed to Jeonghan. "Has made me so much money that I was able to give me a £3000 pay-packet this week."

Joshua swore and Seungcheol made a weird, grunted noise like a woman giving birth to a ginormous baby. 

"£3000?!" Joshua and Seungcheol echoed incredulously, Seungcheol's tone having gone rather high and strangled and Joshua's faint and incredulous. 

Minghao hummed a response, looking only at Joshua, his fingers carding through Joshua's hair before kissing him again. Seungcheol slapped down his tea-towel, formerly over his shoulder, and gave up. He went around through the hallways to find Jeonghan.

-

Junhui had no idea how at home he would be in Australia. He was so happy. He couldn't believe it. Nothing meant more to him than this place. It summed up galaxies for him. The bustling cities that weren't steeped in old-world past like London and Paris and Rome, but, was more cultured and sophisticated than the rash cheapness of America. The weather was incredible, and, so were the people. There was no such thing as the typical Australian. They were all so different. Junhui almost found it strange, to see from the Fillipino and Sri Lankan cleaning ladies to the Russian-descended woman who was the head of HR to all the funny, unique hipsters and indie folk, modern old-world folk and dark academia aestheticed people he worked with, was in charge of - they were all proud to be Australia, and proud to be in Australia. 

Junhui rarely stopped smiling. 

"Junnie!" Vanessa called out. She found him in an office space as incredible as hers, and, Junhui couldn't help but adore her more than he already did. Despite what people said about all human beings been the same, they were not. Despite what people said about all men and women been the same, they were not. Junhui had expected the Italian woman with her husband and three children and most likely Catholic faith to look down spitefully at this bizarre looking Chinese man who she would have thought have rahter Communist tendencies and give him the fright of his life. But, she hadn't been like that at all. She had adopted him in like a fourth child, even though all her children were under ten, and he was twenty-three.

His English had much approved, and, well, Vanessa had tried learning Mandarin for his sake, but, it had completely fucked her up, to be perfectly honest. 

"Get your arse here now!"

Out of Junhui's experience of Vanessa, he found one startling thing; she was an Italian woman that didn't act like her Mother and Grandmother. In fact, she hated her Mother and Grandmother. Vanessa had once done her nut about seeing something about racism towards the Mediterranian ethnicities in the newspaper. "All these scum carry on about it being racism when it is just correctly pointed out that - yes! - the Italians and Sicilians did bring the Mafia along with their pizza's and slamai's and inbreeding!" Junhui had very quickly learnt that Vanessa did not identify so much as Italian as he thought she would have done. Junhui found out that Vanessa's Mother was half French, half Italian, but, her Father was Israelite Jewish, and, that, she liked to say her face was due to Jewish genes, not "Wog" genes.

Sadly for Vanessa, it never worked. She looked more like Sylvia Cocola than Nigella Lawson.

Vanessa came and perched herself on the edge of Junhui's desk. She was wearing a light green linen summer-dress with a denim jacket and high-heeled tan boots. Her hair was done up in a bee-hive, and, she didn't have her usual slash of dark red lipstick for once it seemed.

She pinched his nose, but not hard enough to damage him. She carried a tablet in one hand.

"You never tell me that you were gay." She stated.

Junhui blinked. "I'm not."

"LGBT+ thingy, then." Vanessa looked a bit wary, as though she expected Junhui to go ballistic at her.

Junhui shook his head. "Not any of that. Hey, Nessa, what's the problem?"

Vanessa blinked. "But I've seen photos of you kissing boys." She said. "And when I say boys I mean others and Xu Minghao who I -" She looked at him breathlessly before putting her tablet down on the table and slapping him around the face. Junhui's reaction time was a bit slowed due to shock. No one had slapped him about the face since he was eight, he thought. "YOU COULD HAVE HELPED ME IF HE'S YOUR BOYFRIEND!" "EX-BOYFRIEND, AND I AM NOT FUCKING GAY, SO PISS OFF YOU JEWISH CUNT!" Junhui roared right back at her. Vanessa blinked, shocked herself because she hadn't expected that. "PITY YOUR FAMILY DIDN'T GET KILLED IN AUSWHITZ; BUT FOR ALL THE PEOPLE THT WERE TORTURED AND VICTIMS OF GENOCIDE, WHY DON'T YOU EXPLAIN TO THEM WHY YOUR SECOND CAR IS A VOLKSWAGEN GOLF AND YOU OWN A CAR MADE BY AUDI? AND, AND WHY YOU ARE MARRIED TO A MAN WHO DRIVES A PORSCHE? YOU JEWISH CUNTS CARRY ON ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST BUT THEN YOU DRIVE CARS MADE BY THE FAMILIES WHO PAID FOR THE CONCERNTRATION CAMPS!" Junhui slammed the lid of his laptop shut and collected his jacket. "AND ME AND FUCKING MINGHAO AREN'T TOGETHER ANYMORE! WE SPLIT UP BECAUSE I WALKED IN ON HIM HAVING BDSM SEX WITH ONE OF OUR CLOSEST FRIENDS - WHO WAS UNCONCIOUS AND BLEEDING LIKE A STUCK PIG FROM WHERE HE HAD HAD CUTS DOWN HIS HIPS AND THIGHS AND CHEST!" Junhui slammed the door to his office shut, and, as a couple of security people and older office workers looked to him, he told them frankly one of his first ever learnt English phrases blended as future had come by: "Fuck off you filthy Australian cunts." He snarled bitterly. \- "Oh, Cheol - hey!" Jeonghan had undone the buttons by the neck of the dress and had just been peeling it off his skin as Seungcheol had opened his bedroom door. Jeonghan held the fabric that was still worn over a good half of his body to his chest, a bit concious. "Put it back on." Seungcheol quipped bluntly. "Sorry?" Despite Jeonghan's echoe, he felt a tiny, tiny thrill run through his veins. "Put the frock back on." Seungcheol repeated, leaning against the small bookcase that mostly Joshua stuffed things in, across the room from Jeonghan, watching him. Jeonghan slid the dress back over his ribs and chests and shoulders, and, he went to do it up, but, his fingertips slipped on the buttons. After a few seconds, Seungcheol murmured something too soft for human comprehension. He moved across the room, and, Jeonghan turned around so Seungcheol could easily, efficently do up the buttons on the back of the dress. Seungcheol murmured something else under his breath as he completed the task, and, it was starting to annoy Jeonghan that he kept missing things due to Seungcheol's tone. Jeonghan turned around and let Seungcheol see him. Seungcheol still stood close to him and took him in, his gaze settling over Jeonghan in a pleasant way. One that didn't suffocate him. \- "Do you think Wonwoo's changed since he got with Woosung?" Mingyu asked Chan. He and Chan were at Vernon and Seungkwan's house. They weren't really doing anything. They were just hanging out while Vernon postively did his nut on the phone upstairs to someone. Seungkwan checked on him every half hour. He was making his fourth trip up the stairs, because, whatever Vernon was yelling himself hoarse about, it really was fucking serious. "Because Woosung's an old man?" Chan quipped. Mingyu had been meaning to ask him about how he and Chrissie were doing, but, he had to get his inner problem out first. The Wonwoo problem. "Yeah." Mingyu nodded. "Uh...I dunno." Chan shrugged. "Hm." Mingyu hunmed. "But I know we see less of him. Between that job he has with that arsehole - what's the old cunts name? - and then seeing Woosung...do you actually see him?" Chan checked up. "Dinner, sometimes...most of the time, when he has a leak before going to bed." Mingyu answered. "You watch him?" Chan raised an eyebrow. Even though it was the worst joke in the world, Mingyu grinned. He waited a moment as Chan whistled and Vernon and Suengkwan's pet Blue Heeler puppy came over to his feet. Chan picked up the silvery-blue and black puppy, gently rubbing the top of her head with his index finger. The puppy looked like she'd go to sleep in his lap. Mingyu wondered if Chan was any good with human babies, not just animal ones. "I hear him." Mingyu explained. "Then the footsteps down the hall..." He walked his two index fingers across the surface of Vernon and Seungkwan's kitchen table. Mingyu and Chan looked up to the ceiling as something like breaking glass sounded. "Oh, for fuck's sake!" Vernon yelled. Seungkwan came down the stairs to grab a tea-towel. "Knocked over a mug." Seungkwan had a bit of a glow in his skin, and Mingyu wondered what the fuck was going on with him and Vernon. So much to the point that Mingyu stuck his hand in a firm anchor in the back pocket of Seungkwan's and drew him back. "What's got you smiling?" Mingyu put to him simply. "Vernon knows someone and we're having a date this weekend and the girl was raised by a widower Father so Vern says she's man enough to keep me not a complete bitch." Seungkwan beamed, before heading back upstairs. Chan and Mingyu stared at each other open-mouthed, before, quite politely, the little blue heeler puppy did quite a delicate but incredibly pongy little fart.


	38. THIRTY-EIGHT

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minghao works on appealing the iconic and, yet, notorious Scandinavian art market, Chan and Christine-Elena talk wedding plans, Mingyu finally gets to have some time with Wonwoo, Jihoon finally learns how to surf, and, Madeleine gets rocked by her Mother struggling to accept Jihoon even though they married

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This irritating thing happens sometimes. I type any of my work in Microsoft and then copy it over to ao3 here, because, if I didn't do it that way, my internet bill would be through the bloody roof. Except, just sometimes, it jumbles up all the script and truly does give me the shots. It usually amends itself, but, honestly, what a pain in the arse

"Tak, næste."

Minghao stifled down a laugh as Jeonghan wobbled in the heel shoes and he went arse over head. 

"Got the shot, we're right." Minghao told Jeonghan. 

"And this is to go in Jun's magazine?"

"No." Minghao smiled evilly. "The chief competitor." He said. "Which is why I've got you speaking Danish."

"Won't that hurt him?" Jeonghan's brow furrowed.

"Remarkably." Minghao nodded. He considered Jeonghan. "Did something happen between you and Seungcheol when he went off to your room?"

Jeonghan shook his head. "Nothing substantial." He answered. "I was halfway through getting it off, and, I got it back on again because he wanted to look."

Something flashed in Minghao's eyes. He grinned again.

"It always begins like this."

-

"What song would you get married to?" Chan found himself asking Christine-Elena in the middle of the night. It was after Midnight, but, he was awake. She hummed softly as she woke up.

"TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME by The 1975." She answered, turning over and smoothing down someof her platinum-blonde hair.

"Are you crazy?" Chan grinned. Due to Vernon, he was a little bit partial to the Manchester rock group.

"Nah, boy." Christine-Elena grinned.

"I've heard that song; it's about cheating." Chan remarked.

"Yeah, but it's a happy song and it makes your baby dance and feel great." Christine-Elena cuddled in closer to him, her arms going around his back and his stomach, her head on his chest.

"Oh, God." Chan chuckled. He kissed her head. It was very underrated, how lovely it was to have a woman's head on your chest. Because what it did, right, was project the smell of her hair-soap up your nostrils, and, seeing as anything girl-related had to smell nice, it was never too bad a experience.

"You know I'm Pagan, yeah?" Christine-Elena mumbled.

"Yeah?" Chan patted her head. He said he was alright with a Pagan wedding, just as long as he did have to drink goats blood or anything like that. He hissed as she pinched his cock.

"You're still in for the shock of your life." She told him.

"How?" Chan asked.

"You have not met my Dad yet." Christine-Elena looked up at him, and, Chan briely got reminded of how she look when she was blowing him.

"Yeah?" Chan had heard this before, and, heard it time and time again from all the chaos his mates had had over the years. The Father would be thought to be a prick, but, it turns out that he's lovely and the daughter's can stop worrying, becuase, it's the evil-minded old cunt of a Mother you have to get into world war three with.

"Or his machine guns." Christine-Elena added.

Chan looked at her.

"Or the Druids." The Scandinavian woman added nervously.

"Do they have guns?" Chan managed. She smiled suddenly.

"No!" Christine-Elena smacked his arm playfully. "They have big knives, love!"

Chan laughed, but, inside, he felt very weak. He had no idea if Christine-Elena was joking or not.

-

Mingyu stayed up late so he could see Wonwoo. He looked around to the front door from one of the sitting rooms as he heard the sound of it been opened.

Wonwoo came automatically into the sitting room. It was nearly Midnight. Usually, Mingyu would be in bed by now, having to get up at seven 'o' clock ever morning. He wasn't exactly a morning person, either.

"You waited up?" Wonwoo put his case down on the floor by the couch and draped his coat over the back. He sat down beside Mingyu. 

"Yeah, wanted to see you." Mingyu said.

Wonwoo gave something like a smile but not quite. He leant his head on Mingyu's shoulder. Mingyu rested his head against Wonwoo's. 

"Thank you for doing that for me." Wonwoo whispered.

"'S alright." Mingyu mumbled.

-

Jihoon had never thought he'd get the hang of surfing, but, guess what happened?

With her phone wrapped in a waterproof case, Madeleine floated on her own beachwood-fibre surfboard and filmed Jihoon surfing, before sending it around to all his mates, but, when she texted Soonyoung and Seokmin, she made a little extra effort. She sent them a text beneath telling them to give a call; Jihoon liked New Zealand but he wanted to know if Seokmin's disasterous love life had inproved even minutely, and if Soonyoung had got arrested by the police - for some reason. 

Madeleine knew Jihoon loved his mates, and, she wasn't going to split that up. She hated women - no, downright loathed women - who did things like that. Because all those women thought it was appropirate to keep their husbands on a leash and demand everything of them and take all their money and complain, but, if a man did the exact same thing, it was domestic abuse. Madeleine hated all of that. She let out a whoop as Jihoon came off his surfboad, and, she waited for him to resurface. She made him wear a ankle strap so the kahuna board didn't go astray, and, she reflected on only how a week or two ago he couldn't stand up on the board, and, how he'd sink like a pebble when he came off. Well, to be honest, he still sunk like a pebble when he came off the board, but, Madeleine didn't have to dive down and fish him out anymore. Madeleine had thought it was hilarious, seeing her tiny husband in a black wet-suit floating slightly bad-temperedly beneath the waves, admist the blue ocean water. She wondered if he had gotten a bit embarrassed in front of her cousins when, one day, she'd had go and fish him off the bottom of the sea, and he came back to the surface thoroughly drench and held against her chest, looking more like a child than a man with a scrape on his cheek from where he had been dumped to the sand before and obiviously caught himself on some sort of texture.

"Maddie!" Jihoon called out, grinning widely. She waved her phone at him.

"Filmed it, love!" She shouted back. They paddled out a bit further together, and took a wave together back into the shore.

"You did fuckin' brilliant, bubba!" She told him, bending down to hug him, as they got to the shore and stuck their boards in the sand.

"Hey!" Jihoon slapped her back. Madeleine quickly straightened up and apologised, but she was nearly pissing herself laughing. She had to be careful sometimes, because, especially like this, she could accidentally suffocate Jihoon in her chest.

When they got back to the cottage they had been staying in on the farm and vineyard estate, "Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC was blaring from a CD player. 

"Something about that reminds me of the 95' line." Jihoon commented to Madeleine. She nearly wet herself laughing. 

"Yeah, sorry, chicken, forgot I left that bloody thing on." Madeleine said. As Jihoon went upstairs to have a shower, she took her phone out of the protective case that she had stuffed inside the chest of her wet-suit, and, just as she did, it rang. It was her Mother, Aaria-Rui. She answered it on the third ring.

"Hello, my girl." Madeleine could hear the big, tender smile in her Mother's voice.

"Hey, Mumma, whatcha up to?" Madeleine asked. "Me and the boy just been out surfin'. He's got so much better. Don't need to dive and collect him up from the sea floor anymore." She laughed. "How are you and Dadda?"

"We miss you." Aaria-Rui told her.

"Oh, Mum, don't you dare." Madeleine said softly. "I miss you and Dadda too, but, it's the same when I'm back in Korea doing my nursing and that, right, you know?"

"Ah, girl, we know." Aaria-Rui replied. "You sure you happy with that Jihoon boy?"

"Yeah, Mumma, I'm sure." Madeleine replied. There was a soft silence on the other end.

"That's good." Her Mother said. Madeleine had to end the call. She held her phone against her chest. She felt like she had been shot through the heart.


	39. THIRTY-NINE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vernon's boss passes away from his pancreatic cancer and leaves the weight of the business and horrible customers on Vernon's shoulders; Seungkwan walks out on the date Vernon set up for him due to self-esteem issues, Vanessa comes to apologise to Junhui but says she's glad he isn't gay. She doesn't want him to be gay. Minghao gets a chunk bitten out of him by Chan when he rings up, needing a favour, and, Seungcheol asks Joshua if he wants to move in with Minghao

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One thing I want to make clear about Vanessa's character; welcome to the real world. In no way is this a anti-semetic gesture in any way by making her not partial to anything LGBT. If people are to exist as fulfilled, intelligent human beings, they must understand one simple little naturalism - not all human beings are the same. They behave different, think different, choose different, commit different. And, most Jews and European Ethnicities don't like LGBT; from a religeous and a racial cultural point of view, they think LGBT people are sub-humans. Just because the Jews were nearly wiped out in the world wars, this does not make them launch into the goody-goody idealogy of the "minorities sticking together". Jews, in general, will turn on you, and their own, at the drop of a hat. And what happened to their race as a whole in the last century as quite fundamentally changed the behavior of their race...and not necessarily in a good way, this good way put across by all the goody-goody university students who think they invent the wheel but it was the "scumbag past" who built the chassis

Vernon's boss had passed away from his cancer. Vernon, and all other former employees, had popped around to see his Widow and make sure she was alright. She went up to the countryside to stay with her own family. Vernon had spent a whole week after his boss's death arguing with clients who didn't want work done by someone who wasn't the boss.

Vernon was coming home everynight very stressed, but, on the night of Seungkwan's date that he had set up for the other man, he was eerily calm.

"Don't say anything stupid, don't knock over the drinks, and, on no account can she see your real self." Vernon told Seungkwan as he walked him to the front door.

"Why can't you just show me a picture of what she looks like?" Seungkwan complained.

"Because I want you to be blown away by her breathtaking beauty." Vernon remarked. Seungkwan laughed.

"Bullshit." He said. "Does she know what I look like?"

"She knows almost everything about you." Vernon said.

"What, how?!" Seungkwan shrilly exclaimed.

"'Cause I told her almost everything about you." Vernon responded. He winked. "Good luck, mate." He gave Seungkwan a quick hug and told him to remember the clutch pedal in the Van; it was manual drive, not automatic.

Vernon wandered back inside, and, found the puppy asleep on the ottoman. She woke up as he carefully sat down on the couch, trying not to wake her. Her little mouth and her tongue opened. Vernon picked her up, her tail wagging, and he looked at her, holding her up in the air.

"Kwannie's got a girlfriend now." He sighed. "So what are you going to do when you discover heeled shoes and bras about the house?"

The puppy sneezed all over him.

-

Seungkwan nearly swore as he stepped through the front door of the restaurant where he was supposed to meet his girl. Nothing wrong in the place - bloody lovely, actually, considering Vernon arranged it - but there were girls EVERYWHERE. Pretty girls EVERYWHERE.

How the fuck was he supposed to know?

"Seungkwan?"

Seungkwan looked around to the left-hand side of the room. A young woman with thick, black hair like Yoko Ono's and a round-square face with a straight nose, severely monolidded eyes, big lips, a thick jaw, and a gorgeous but healthy body gazed over to him. She was wearing a tight and black jersey dress with three-quart. sleeves, a mid-calf-length hem and a crew neck. She had on no make-up, and, Seungkwan was lost for words. Suddenly, the girl smiled. Ooo. She had dimples! One in each cheek!

But, something stopped Seungkwan. 

One simply thought.

A girl like her didn't deserve to be with a guy like him. They need - they wanted - Mingyu's and Wonwoo's and Jihoon's and Vernon's. Even Joshua's and Minghao's and Chan's, maybe. Not Seungkwan's.

This was why Seungkwan turned on his heel and left the venue as fast as he could.

-

Vernon looked around, having just let the puppy out for her evening wee, as the front door opened. Thankfully, she darted back inside and made small, happy noises. She followed Vernon as he went to the front door and saw Seungkwan getting his shoes off.

"What are you doing back here?" Vernon asked, something faint and indescribable settling in the space between his chest and stomach, between his ribs.

"Girls like don't go along with guys like me." Seungkwan said. "They need Mingyu's and Wonwoo's and Jihoon's and Vernon's. Sometimes Joshua's and Minghao's and Chan's. Not Seungkwan's." Seungkwan shook his head slightly, looking at Vernon intently, apologetically, worriedly. "Thank you for going to the effort, but...I'm sorry. I can't."

Vernon watched as Seungkwan climbed up the stairs.

"I'm so sorry." He murmured softly after him.

-

Junhui went to answer the front door of his apartment. He didn't expect to see Vanessa on the front doorstep. Suddenly, she looked older. Or maybe it was just the lighting in the hallway and his living space that made the lines either side of his mouth and her eyes seem to jump out.

"I'm sorry, Junhui." She said. Her voice had changed. The vibrant, Australian blend to her accented voice had changed. There was something deeper about it, slowed-down, the tones of her French-Italian Mother and Israelite Jewish Father coming into her throat, burring her down. There was a bottomless depth in her eyes, and Junhui thought about her husband and her three children.

"You are right." She added. "Jewish people should not drive German cars, and yet we do." She smiled softly, sadly. "It makes the Nazi's right; we are a sub-human race."

"No, Nessa, don't say that." Regret and soft-focus pain at the intensity of his words earlier, though Junhui had meant them and did believe him, flooded his being. He held out a arm for the older woman, and, hugged her. He could smell her perfume on her neck and her clothes and her hair. 

"I'll be honest with you about something." Vanessa murmured, still holding onto him. "I don't like gay people; I don't think it's right. What they do, how they behave, how they think been gay or whatever makes them so much better people. Any of those people I know in my life are selfish, ignorant, lying, horrible people. But people don't get that. They are too stupid to understand this." She rubbed her cheekbone against the point of Junhui's shoulder, once, twice, thrice. "I didn't want you to be like that. I don't want you to be like that. You're too nice a boy to be like this."

Junhui touched Vanessa's hair, and, then, his hand pressed gently over the shape of her skull. "That really hurts." He whispered in English that he was still learning. "But I know what you mean."

Junhui felt Vanessa's chest rising and falling with breath up against his. The swell of her breasts in her green dress pressed up against his - a man's chest, so much different - in his black shirt. 

"I really did love him."

-

Minghao called up Chan. He stuck a cigarette in his mouth and lit it. He looked to Jeonghan, asleep on the floor of the studio in a bra and knickers set. The heater in the studio space was going, so, it was warm. While he waited for Chan to pick up, and, then, waited for him when Chan said to hold on, he took his first couple of millimeters off the cigarette and took a photo of Jeonghan amongst the set. It wasn't a profressional photograph to be released; it was a personal one for all of them. "Chan, can I ask a massive favour of you?" Minghao questioned when Chan told him they could chat.

"Oh, fuck, what is it?" Chan laughed a bit. 

"Can I borrow your woman?" Minghao asked simply.

There was dead silence on the other end. "Chan?" Minghao wondered what was going on.

"I will kill you." Chan sounded like he was gritting his teeth.

"CHAN! YOU'VE TURNED SCANDINAVIAN!" Minghao shouted. Jeonghan jerked away and looked all around him before he realized it was just Minghao. He rolled his eyes dirtily and went back to sleep on the floor. "I don't mean it like that! I don't care if that's what they do either; I need someone that can speak Danish and Korean, and, last time I checked, Chrissie did!"

Chan was still silent. Minghao groaned, running his hand roughly through his hair. "Chan?" He hoped the other woman would cooperate with his plans. It was one little task. Just one little task.

"I'll tell her alright, but, if she doesn't want to do it, she's not doin' it right?" Chan told Minghao. Minghao agreed, but, he wondered what was causing Chan's tone of voice. He really, really wasn't happy.

"What's up with you?" Minghao asked him.

"Night." Chan said abruptly before hanging up. 

"Don't need to ask what caused that." Jeonghan looked up through his eyelashes at Minghao. Minghao laid down on the ground beside him.

"Ok, wise woman of the forest, what's going on?" Minghao quipped.

"He's had a fight, not with her I'd say, but, maybe her family - or friends." Jeonghan said. 

"How do you know it's not just her?" Minghao asked.

"Because he rushed to protect her, and, then, he ran common courtesy and decency by her." Jeonghan said. "If they had had a fight, you know for a fact he wouldn't be so nice."

-

"Josh, can I ask you something?" Seungcheol quipped

"Yeah, sure." Joshua smiled as Seungcheol came and collapsed down on the couch beside him, leaning against Joshua's body a bit. Joshua fixed one of his arms around Seungcheol and put the telelvision on mute. It was just the news playing.

"Do you want to move in with Minghao?" Seungcheol gathered his courage and asked.

Joshua considered this. "It would be nice to wake up to him every morning." Joshua admitted. "But I like waking up to you two every morning." A quiet disppointment settled in his gut at how Seungcheol didn't seem to get it straight up.

"But Minghao is Minghao." Seungcheol tried to press his own point across. "What he obviously means to you."

"Yes." Joshua said. "And you are Seungcheol and Han is Han." He smiled. "Trust me, please. I like the way things are; so do you, Han, and Hao. Things stay the same...it's sweet."


	40. FORTY

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seungkwan is very quiet and Vernon realizes something is very wrong, Jeonghan has a sex dream about Minghao and realized that there is something up shit creek without a paddle when you're wanting to shag your boss and your best mates boyfriend. Soonyoung and Seokmin get the earliest wake up call ever as Jihoon is on the first flight back to Korea from New Zealand as Madeleine splits up with him and says that she wants a divorce. Woosung suggests to Wonwoo that Wonwoo should leave his horrible workplace and come and work for Woosung instead, with the added bonus of office sex. Vernon beats up a hardware manage who supplied his business with dodgy equipment and he holds a baby for the first time when his injured worker due to this dodgy equipment can't pick her up from the floor at his home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I got quite a bit in :) 
> 
> COMMENT IF YOU LIKE THE DIVINYLS!!!!

The first thing in the morning, Vernon brought up Seungkwan a mug of tea. He waited outside his bedroom door for a few moments with the steaming mug. Seungkwan seemed sort of faint and quiet when He answered the door.

Seungkwan was never faint and quiet.

"Oh, you're going to be late for work." Seungkwan said softly, taking the mug carefully out of Vernon's hands so he didn't spill it. They went into Seungkwan's room. It was a fairly neat space, and, besides, Vernon wasn't fussy.

"I'm the boss, now." Vernon told Seungkwan. "It won't matter if I'm five minutes late."

Seungkwan nodded agreeibly, something like a smile on his mouth. "I don't want to keep you." He said.

Vernon shrugged. "No worries, mate, we'll all survive." He flashed a grin at Seungkwan.

"Sorry, I'll wake up properly in a minute."

Vernon blinked. Seungkwan never apologised for anything. He was a bitch of a thing.

Fuck.

This was really fucking serious.

-

Jeonghan shivered as he felt Minghao's hands run over his bare skin, across his neck and shoulders and back. He had his shirt pulled up and over his head so Minghao could do some writing across his back, but, the tip of a marker or a pen or a paintbrush hadn't touched his skin yet. 

"You have good skin." Minghao told him. His fingertips ran over Jeonghan's skin, before, he moved away to go and collect his items. Hot, thick feeling pooled in the pit of Jeonghan's stomach.

Jeonghan's eyes flew open, waking up from his dream.

Oh.

That really wasn't good. 

Dreaming about his boss and Joshua's boyfriend.

Fucking, fucking, fucking shit.

-

Seokmin was stirred awake by his phone nearly vibrating itself off the edge of his bed. Seokmin rolled over and answered it without checking who it was, and, he promised himself if it was a telemarketer, they were going to get absolutely fucking roared at.

"Seokmin, mate, sorry to trouble you, but can I ask you something?"

It was Jihoon, and, it sounded like he was nearly crying.

Seokmin sat up bolt-right in bed.

"Shit, are you ok, what's happened?" Seokmin said.

"Maddie's left me. She said it won't work because I'm not Maori. She doesn't want to come back to Korea. She wants to stay in New Zealand. She wants a divorce." Jihoon's tone cracked on the last word, "divorce".

"The bitch!" Seokmin exclaimed. 

-

Seokmin drove to the airport to pick up Jihoon, which had been the point of the early-morning phone call in the first place. Beside him in his car was Soonyoung, coming for extra support. Soonyoung was talking to Jihoon now on the phone about what was going on and what had happened. Seokmin had just gone around to Soonyoung's and had told him to get his arse into the passenger seat, he'd find out on the way.

"The bitch!" Soonyoung hollered, the exact same response Seokmin had given ten minutes before.

The two of them were barely dressed, in jeans and mismatching socks with jumpers on, hiding their pyjama shirts.

-

The drive home from the airport was nearly silent, apart from the odd sound of Jihoon sniffling in the back seat, or, the hushed, gulped-down sob.

Fuck.

Jihoon really had loved Madeleine.

Seokmin's Father had once told him that if everyone stayed where they came from and kept with their own kind, everything in the world would be fine. Seokmin had thought that that was a bit racist at the time, but, now, he understood. He truly did understand. Even though Maddie's - Madeleine's, Seokmin corrected himself - Grandfather had been Korean, and her Father was half Korean, she had a full-blood Maori Mother and Grandmother. She had virtually grown up nearly all the while in New Zealand with her Mother and Grandmother's maori tribe, and had lived their ways for twenty-odd years before going to Korea to do her nursing, thinking she could make some grab out of her Grandfather's birth-place.

Of course it wouldn't last. Of course it wouldn't...

Not when Jihoon was not like her.

Seokmin's hands tightened on the steering wheel, and, when he changed gears, he did it angrily.

He wasn't angry at Jihoon, no, never angry at Jihoon. But Seokmin was angry with Madeleine.

The Maori Bitch.

Soonyoung slipped his right hand around the passenger seat and over the glovebox to touch Jihoon's knee. Jihoon peered down through wet, swollen eyes, and his own hand covered Soonyoung's. 

Seokmin couldn't help wondering if now, with this divorce, how much Madeleine would want to take from Jihoon. Jihoon's home and money were wealthy amounts. And, under law, she could take at least half of it, or, if she wanted to...

Absolutely everything.

-

"Why don't you come and work for me if you hate your job where it is so much?" Woosung proposed to Wonwoo. They were still laying together in bed, Woosung naked and Wonwoo naked except for one of Woosung's shirts he was wearing. He had gotten colder throughout the night so he had picked it up off the floor of Woosung's bedroom at the end of his bed. "I actually know your boss personally; and you're right. He is a cunt. And you'd be so much happier at my work. No stress, no strain." Woosung's head touched Wonwoo's in a gesture, his nose and lips brushing up against Wonwoo's temple. "Office sex." He murmured suggestfully.

Wonwoo grinned, getting his glasses off the bedside table. He was starting to stay over at Woosung's house - even though it was just next door to his - a lot more. 

"If I resign he wouldn't give me a reference."

"You wouldn't need one, not from him." Woosung said. "Fuck nepotism. I want you, not some other idiot to do the paperwork. Screw a job line. Just come into the office when you're ready and we'll get started." He kissed Wonwoo's temple, and, then, went down to his mouth. He knew Wonwoo liked it like that. "Anyway, I could give a very, very good reference about you, as it happens..."

-  
One of the guys that Vernon worked with nearly came a cropper when one of the lungs on one of their work ladders broke. Vernon had been in another room of their customer's house when the accident had happened outside in the back garden from where they were fitting a new central-heating connection pump. Two of the other guys had caught him - Thank God - but it left Vernon with disapproving customers - as though it was his fault - and, a bone to pick with the hardware store in the city that they had bought from through the business since the early 90's.

"The fucking thing could have killed -" Vernon had just said, in an arguement with the hardware store manager. 

"Not our problem." The manager said flatly.

"That ladder is fucked - you knew it was fucked - and one of my workers and my mates could have cracked his head open and died because the fittings you put on the rung extension fucking failed because they weren't the right parts." Vernon growled. The manager, fat and gormless, shrugged indifferently.

Vernon head-butted the man, and, because there was no blood the first time, he did it again.

This time, blood did flow upon the concrete floor.

Vernon stormed out of the hardware store and climbed into his van, and went as quickly as he could to the house of his guy that was nearly hurt. He seemed alright, cuddling his three-month old baby on the couch while their pet labrador slept half in the babies floor play-gym. 

"You sure it's not hurtin', mate?" Vernon checked with him.

"Vern, it's all good, mate." The man promised him. His baby shifted in his arms, and one of her tiny hands closed over the tip of his nose. Both Vernon and the worker smiled.

"Looks like her Mum." Vernon commented.

"Favourite girls in the world." His worker grinned at him. "I'll be comin' back tomorrow, 'cause we're all good."

Vernon told him about the "incident" at the hardware store. His worker's face fell.

"Oh, buddy." He groaned softly, not wanting to stir the baby out of her cheerful mood. He got up from the couch, and, Vernon's blood pressure went through the roof as he noticed the stiffness in one of his friend's legs as he put his baby down on her playgym, and she lay against the sleeping labrador's side, delving one of her tiny hands into his fur. "Some fuckin' goodey-goodey'll get the rozzers onto you now."

"And I'll say that that feckless cunt trying to sell some dodgy ladders is the reason you have an issue." Vernon pointed to the worker's leg. "Don't fuckin' lie to me, come on, what's up?"

"Me knee's hurtin' a bit, but, God's sake, don't tell me woman." The worker pointed in the direction of the kitchen. "She'll get her Mum to come around and help and I fuckin' hate the evil old bitch as it is..."

Vernon sort of smiled. When he had come to the guy's wedding, their boss, now dead from cancer, had said that the mother of the bride was a "hardfaced cunt of a thing".

It was amazing how you could just fucking pick them.

"We'll work it out." Vernon promised, and patted his shoulder.

"Want something to eat before you go?" The worker offered. "Me girl always cooks a lot and you drove through evening traffic in the fuckin' dark, so...?"

Vernon thought about Seungkwan, but, half an hour wouldn't hurt. "Thanks mate. Good of you."

Suddenly, a strange look came over the worker's face. Vernon caught onto it immediately.

"I don't reckon I can get down to get her up." The worker nodded to his baby. 

"Ah, shit." Vernon said very quietly. He hadn't held or picked up a baby before.

And, now, he had too.

"Slip one of your hands under her back and the other round her head. With the hand around her back, her rear end on your forearm, make sure her arms and legs don't go everywhere. When you go to pick her up, raise her up a tiny bit, hold her to your shoulder, and then straighten up." Vernon did as his mate said, and, as he did so, the baby's body was a comfortable, small weight in his hands and arms, and, when he held her to his chest like he had too, she made a few little noses, and one of her hands got a handful of his shirt.

It was one of the loveliest things Vernon had ever encountered. 

He gave the baby back to her Father, and, he started thinking a little bit as he stayed for dinner.

When Seungkwan had been worried about him leaving or getting married or having kids...

Maybe he'd been more right than Vernon had initially thought.


	41. FORTY-ONE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A heartbroken Jihoon does his nut when Madeleine demands a 50/50 divorce settlement from him, and, when Jihoon explains to Seokmin how this will leave Madeleine with quite the packet - half a million quid - Seokmin falls into a dead faint. Seokmin sees Seungkwan and catches up with him as Vernon counties to worry; this leads to a startling revelation. Matters also change as Seokmin sees Wonwoo at his office, written about in the next chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I could never think of a job to give to Seungkwan and when I was on instagram earlier a video came up of when they were practicing being Dads at a kindergarten and a little boy jumped up into Seungkwan's arms and squashed his nads in the process with his little bubba feet. It just made me think - as Seungkwan sunk into agony and clean bubba smell - BUBBAS! I'll give him a - I'll make him a paediatric specialist! One, it's quite a good job, and, oh, you make mote money been a Doctor for the little bubbas than you do grown up arseholes!

Soonyoung and Seokmin watched as Jihoon angrily buttered a piece of toast, and, in the harsh effort, ripped it in half. "You stupid fucking cunt of a thing!" Jihoon snapped in a roar before tipping it into the rubbish bin and hurling the cermaic plate it had been on. The plate hit the opposite wall in the kitchen and shattered into a dozen or so pieces.

"You're so dealing with this." Soonyoung uncomfortably poked Seokmin in the back.

"Yeah, yeah, wait here." Seokmin ushered Soonyoung back into the sitting room. "Ji, you ok, mate?" Seokmin asked, going into the kitchen.

"She texted me." Jihoon said bluntly, glaring at Seokmin viciously. Seokmin was getting really, really worried about Jihoon's blood pressure. "Her family have "advised" her that I should give her a..." Jihoon's breath caught out and he sharply turned on his heel and away from Seungcheol, walking over to the back door and heading out of it. Seokmin rushed out of it, and, Jihoon leant against the railing of his under-cover verandah, head ducked down. Seokmin didn't know if Jihoon was sick or just really upside down. 

Seokmin leant down a bit and tried to see Jihoon's face. 

"She wants a 50/50 settlement." Jihoon whispered strangedly. Seokmin nearly fell over at the next thing Jihoon said. "That means she's going to have £500,000 of my money."

Seokmin just hugged Jihoon as he looked sightlessly and open-mouthed over his shoulder.

Half of....

Five hundred thousand quid?

"Since when did you have a million quid?" Seokmin asked.

"I've got five and half million, but if you ever tell anyone, I'll have you killed." Jihoon answered. "There's big business for discreet accountants."

Seokmin slumped into a dead faint.

-

"Hoshi, for fuck's sake, please, help me fucking move him!" Jihoon hissed to Soonyoung. Jihoon had tried slapping Seokmin's face, but, Seokmin handed woken up. Jihoon had then tried patting Seokmin's hand and talking to him like they did in 1930's films, but, that hadn't worked either. Jihoon Seokmin's upper half with Seokmin's head on his shoulder while Soonyoung took care of his legs. 

Eventually, they got Seokmin inside on the couch, and, he woke up.

"Five and a half million quid?!" He exclaimed to Jihoon.

Jihoon slapped him. "Yes, shut up."

"Can we have some?" Soonyoung joked.

Jihoon punched him in the nads.

Seokmin burst out laughing as Soonyoung went "Oof!" and doubled over. 

"Enough, please?" Jihoon held up his hands. "It's a simple request."

"Ok, ok." Both Soonyoung and Seokmin surrendered.

Jihoon sighed. "So, that's what's happening with Maddie, alright?"

"Can you deny her all this money?" Soonyoung asked. Jihoon looked at him, astounded. It was the first intelligent comment Soonyoung had made all day.

"I can get the percentage down to 10%-25%, perhaps, because, I can't say she didn't anything bad. She left me, but not, that isn't the world's greatest sin. She didn't abuse me, didn't rob me -" Jihoon went to explain. 

"She nearly suffocated you repeatedly in her tits." Soonyoung remarked amtter-of-factly. "You could have her on that."

Jihoon chased him around the house with a spatula he grabbed from the kitchen and repeatedly hit him across the arse with it while Seokmin tried not kill himself laughing on the couch.

Eventually, they all calmed down.

"Don't you need a solitictor that does divorce cases?" Soonyoung said, and, Seokmin thought that he'd only know that from television. Dear God. Soonyoung wasn't dumb, but, hold the skill of being articulate in the wider world wasn't one of his greater skills.  
That was Jihoon's.

"I'm going to organize one when the old cunt wakes up." Jihoon waved a hand dismissevly. "I'll leave it to half-eleven."

"Why not now?" Seokmin quipped.

"Yeah, it's half nine, everything should be open everywhere by now." Soonyoung agreed, checking the time on his phone.

Jihoon sighed. "He needs at least three glasses of whiskey before he starts practicing his study of law." Jihoon explained. "I'll go and see him then."

Seokmin and Soonyoung looked at him.

"You're going to get a soak to do your divorce?" Soonyoung echoed.

"Old." Jihoon quipped.

"What?" Soonyoung's eyebrows came up.

"Old soak to do my divorce." Jihoon corrected.

"Can't you see that would be a massive fucking problem?" Seokmin remarked.

Jihoon shook his head. "No, trust me, he's great."

"You are kidding." Soonyoung scoffed.

"No, I'm not, and, besides, I can't do anything for the next year." Jihoon held up his hands.

"What?" Soonyoung and Seokmin said at the same time. Jihoon rolled his eyes.

"If you're going to have a divorce you need a seperation period or a year and a day before you can proceed."

"Oh, for fucks sake!" Soonyoung exclaimed.

Seokmin and even Jihoon burst out laughing.

-

"Hey, mate, would you do a favour for me?" Vernon rang up Seokmin and asked. Seokmin was waiting in the underground car-park in a jam of one of the office buildings in the city where Wonwoo worked. Seokmin desperately needed to ask him something, and, hopefully, if he could get a car park he could catch Wonwoo coming out for his lunch-break.

"Yeah, sure, no worries, what are you after?" Seokmin asked. He quickly explained the under-ground car-park jam to a sympathetic and suffered Vernon and thanked him for giving him something to do.

"Kwannie knocks off work at about half four; you know where his place is right?" Vernon quipped.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Seokmin confirmed.

"Say you're giving him a lift home but go around for a drive and just have some time with him." Vernon told Seokmin about how Seungkwan walked out on the date Vernon had set up for him and how he seemed to be having a bout of utterly plummeting self-confidence. 

"Shit." Seokmin said. He glanced up into the rear-vision mirror of his car. Two cars down, a altercation had started up. He told Vernon to wait a second as a band of horns started playing. "Are you sure we're talking about Kwannie?" Seokmin checked, stuffing a finger into his other ear as he tried to listen to Vernon on the phone. The office security had started to come down out of elevators, and, there was much yelling. On top of it all, it was hard to believe that the dramatic - fuck that, melodramatic - and usually bubbly Seungkwan wasn't quite so that.

"Yes, seargant, I can confirm we are talking about Seungkwan." Vernon put on a brilliant Brummy accent, mimicking Martin Shaw.

Seokmin laughed. "Stop imtimidating The Professionals." Seokmin told him, but, it wasn't without affection. The Professionals had been a blood good show, even though it was decades old by the time that Seokmin had started watching it after been introduced to Vernon.

"God, that was a good show." Vernon hummed.

"All the people in it are either dead or they are Nannas and Grandad's now." Seokmin commented. He checked the scene behind him in his rear-vision mirror again. It looked like someone was going to get tasered.

"Weird how time goes by, isn't it?" Vernon remarked.

"Yeah." Seokmin nodded.

"Do that thing for me, yeah?" Vernon said.

"Yup, promise." Seokmin answered.

"Ok, see you around mate." Vernon went to hang up, but, Seokmin stopped him.

"Are you at work?" He asked.

"Yeah, why?" Vernon checked.

"You're all blokey." Seokmin told him. Vernon laughed a bit.

"Yes, I love you too, dear." Vernon mimicked one of the Toff's.

"Oh, fuck off." Seokmin grinned. "Ok, catch up later, yeah? Bye."

"Yes, darling." Vernon cheerfully responded.

Seokmin gave the finger to his phone as he hung up. He thought about Seungkwan's current state.

Poor guy.

But, all poor guys could be fixed.

Even if it was going to get a bit dodgy.

And very interesting.

-

Seungkwan actually had quite a good job though Seokmin knew that Vernon was sure Seungkwan worried about it sometimes.

Seungkwan worked as a male nurse in paedeatric health under the mentor and friend of a Doctor Kang, a senior paedetrician who trained in England and doubled up as a child forensics specialist. There had been a horrific child murder a few years ago, and, his face had been all over the television via news reports where the cameras had filmed in in PPE going into the home to recover the child's remains. 

Seungkwan loved little children, and, as far as the practice of medicine went, Seungkwan's hunch that he was better adapted at working with children and babies than adults had been an absolutely concreted one. Doctor Kang was a wonderful man to know and a wonderful man to work with, so, for Seungkwan, things were absolutely wicked.

The pedeatric clinic - Seokmin followed directions on his sat nav and hoped he didn't get put in the wrong direction by the useless computer - was in a converted Shaman Temple - one built in the early 1900's - and, to be perfectly honest, it was absolutely beautiful inside. Seungkwan had once showed them all photographs, and, inside the main halls and so on - it looked like a Edwardian home in rural England. "That was Doctor Kang." Seungkwan had explained. "He loves old British architecture."

Seokmin got a car-park beneath a weeping willow tree out the front, and he went inside. The receptionist was a old and stout lady but she had pretty eyes. Seokmin explained he was there to pick up Seungkwan. 

"No worries, my love, take a seat in the waiting room and he'll be with you in a few minutes." She smiled, her pearl earrings glinting from the light of the lamp she had on her desk by her laptop. 

True to the words, Seokmin didn't have to wait long. He heard laughing, and the sounds that only babies made. He smiled to himself. He couldn't imagine finding someone that would happily have kids with him, but, he thought one or two in the future would be a nice thing. Seungkwan came into the waiting room with a huge smile on his face, and, a bag of nappies in one hand.

"Hey, you!" Seungkwan quickly gave Seokmin a hug, in his sneakers and the nurses uniform of navy trousers and v-necked smock shirt with a black t-shirt on underneath. "Be with you in a second, we're locking up now.

"No problem." Seokmin smiled.

A few more minutes later, Seungkwan came back in his black long-sleeved shirt, jeans, and his sneakers with a dark purple cardigan over the top. If it had not been for the cardigan, Seokmin would have been really worried. If Seungkwan didn't have a cardigan, it was the last straw.

He needed a hospital.

"So good to see you, again, how's everything going?" Seungkwan carried his bag in his hand as they walked out to Seokmin's car and he waved goodbye to Doctor Kang and the receptionist going out through the side door as they drove around the block to avoid a lethal set of traffic lights with a double-mini-round-a-bout.

"I'm not sure if you really want to know." Seokmin admitted honestly. He squawked a bit as Seungkwan pinched the inside of his thigh.

Seokmin told him about Madeleine wanting to divorce Jihoon after only been married for a month, month and a half.

"THE BITCH!" Seungkwan exclaimed. Seokmin laughed so much he had to pull over into the carpark of a pretty and tree-covered street until he recovered. Seungkwan checked he was alright before asking him what was going on.

"EVERYONE DOES IT EXACTLY LIKE THAT!" Seokmin moved up and down in the driver's seat a bit. "THEY ALL YELL, "THE BITCH!" AFTERWARDS!" He burst out laughing again, absolutely helpless with it.

Seokmin was happy at been able to see the sight of Seungkwan grinning widely. Soonyoung really was a nice looking guy, and, he was a nice guy once you got to know him. 

"All the babies must adore you." Soonyoung had once said a few months into Seungkwan having his job.

"I have to remember that I can't cuddle them all day." Seungkwan had confessed. Everyone - everyone had been there - had let out an "Awh" with "that's so cute" or "that's so nice" added on the end, except for Joshua, Jeonghan and Jihoon.

"Now we know who doesn't have the paternity gene." Seungkwan had pursed up his lips and had wriggled his eyebrows at them across the table. Everyone had laughed more. "The anti-Dad's."

"I'd be a terrible Dad." Jihoon had said bleakly. "And what would I do if I gave a innocent little baby my heart issues?"

Joshua and Jeonghan were swiftly forgotten as everyone rushed to comfort Jihoon. 

Joshua and Jeonghan were swiftly forgotten as everyone rushed to comfort Jihoon. 

Back in the present, Seokmin and Seungkwan ended up just sitting in the car parked outside someone's old house under beautiful old trees and caught up on everything. Seokmin tenatively tested the waters.

"I heard about your date?" He offered up cautiously. Seungkwan's head tipped back against the head-rest of the passenger seat, and, his eyes gazed at Seokmin.

"I'm not depressed or in a bad place or anything like that, Seokmin." Seungkwan told him honestly. "The reason why I didn't do the date is because I just know I'm not right for her and she is not right for me, even though she was so beautiful - and she was. She was drop-dead gorgeous." Seungkwan smiled, and, Seokmin inched a little bit closer to him, his elbow on the glovebox. Seungkwan sighed. "I know I've probably been a bit quiet, but, it's just me realizing that for the first time in my life I knew something which I never had before." He regarded Seokmin.

"And Vernon keeps getting better looking as he gets older." Seungkwan suddenly grinned. "I've been thinking lately. We're all getting older. And I..."

"Yeah?" Seokmin pressed Seungkwan.

"I don't want things to change, but, you know, it doesn't work like that." Seungkwan's bright grin slipped off to be something slightly different. A knowing, alive look came into his own eyes. "I'm just not sure how to tell Vernon that I want to see things change."

"About what, though?" Seokmin said.

"Us." Seungkwan smiled a little bit, and, it seemed to radiate from his whole being. Seokmin leant over further, his head on Seungkwan's shoulder, and, Seungkwan leant his head against Seokmin's.

They stayed like that for a long time.


	42. FORTY-TWO

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Working on Jeonghan's fetish, Minghao rakes him out to a club for "people like us", and, while Jeonghan is set on finding a person who looks like Joshua, he instead finds a a French-Iranian Adonis with a medical degree, ans, he goes home with him

Jeonghan blushed darkly as Minghao's hands touched his bare neck and Minghao crouch down in front of him. Minghao had an idea for a shot to put on instagram for publicity; Jeonghan taking a selfie with Minghao out of sight but Minghao's hands painted with the Welsh flag around Jeonghan's neck. "Why the dragon and all that?" Jeonghan had asked earlier.

"It's the Welsh flag, and, that part of Sylvia's thing. I'm not taking over her gallery and her business and making it my own, putting all my thing over it. Fuck no. Just do what I ask please?"

It took Jeonghan to realise he might have put Minghao into a little bit of a bad mood with taking the piss out of the Welsh flag and bringing up Sylvia.

But, angry was never a bad thing, right?

"How was you and Shua's date last night?" Jeonghan brought up the topic for conversation, but, as soon as he did, he regretted it. He thought he could talk about it as friends would without his body ripping itself apart inside, but, he was wrong. He couldn't handle it.

"Really nice." Minghao smiled. "I took Joshua and a couple of bottles of claret down to a friend of mine's, and, it was a cool night. I thought it'd have him in, but, it was really nice."

But, despite everything, Jeonghan wanted to know all about it.

"What was that about?" Jeonghan questioned.

"Didn't Josh say?" Minghao's brows furrowed slightly. 

Jeonghan shook his head. At the moment he was wearing black underwear seat, the knickers cut like those high-waist fashions of the 1950's, and a modern shaped bra. The stick-out cups would look ridiculous, had been Jeonghan and Minghao's shared opinion. It had been right. 

Suddenly, Minghao burst out laughing. Jeonghan cut into him on what it was about again.

"What happened?" He asked.

"Well, put it this way, if you don't know you've already been told." Minghao stuck a cigarette between his lips and lit it up. Jeonghan looked at him. He really didn't like this at all.

"Did something bad happen?" Jeonghan questioned.

Minghao beamed. The pit of Jeonghan's stomach burned viciously. Oh God. Minghao walked over to him, cigarette dangling from between his lips. He took in Jeonghan.

"When are you going to do something about that kink of yours?" Minghao asked after taking a deep suck on the cigarette without using his hands; the cigarette looked for a moment between Minghao's lips like he was sucking cock, and, Jeonghan couldn't help but look at the burning orange tip with the thin trail of smoke coming from it.

"I don't know." Jeonghan said honestly, but, something else made him think. If that did happen...cigarettes. Cigarettes as well. There had to be cigarettes.

"Why don't you come out with me tonight all dolled up and I can organize something?" Minghao offered.

Jeonghan scoffed. "I don't need your help to get a date." He told Jeonghan.

"No, I warrant that, but you need by help to get a date that wants a man who likes dresses and fagging." Minghao spun his burning cigarette in his fingers with a raised eyebrow. Jeonghan glanced down to the ground, taking a seat on the wooden stool-seat in the middle of the studio.

"Let me dress you this evening." Minghao said. "Do your face." He exhaled his cigarette smoke, and, Jeonghan's skin went hot. "And we'll go out."

-

If he was desperately honest...Jeonghan wanted someone who looked like Joshua.

Yeah, simple as that.

The truth out.

He wanted someone that looked like Joshua. 

He had no idea how he'd go about getting that though.

He considered himself in the mirror of the studio. Minghao hadn't had him having all his skin out. It was now the mid-Autumn, now, and it was getting cooler.

Jeonghan was in a mid-calf-length black wool skirt with a trench-cut double-breasted blouse in stiff dark grey linen with a collar and sleeves that went wide and were only three quart. cut. Minghao had gotten him some high-heeled - but not treachourously high - black boots to wear, and, so elbow length black velvet gloves.

"I look a bit too much for a club." Jeonghan had said as Minghao did his make-up with a practiced hand.

"We're not going to the ones everyone else goes to." Minghao said. "If this was England, we'd be going to what is referred to as a "Gentleman's Club". Rich, proud, decorumed older men who have very different personal lives to the public persona they put out for the sake of their positions, reputations, and company." Minghao applied dark, dark red lipstick with a brush across Jeonghan's lower lip. "But, the one we're going too isn't full of Toffs that have been accused at least twice of sex crimes and have a tax-evation based off-shore bank account." Minghao's eyes twinkled mischievously. "This place is for our kind of people."

"Our kind?" Jeonghan echoed.

"Our kind." Minghao confirmed.

Jeonghan hadn't realized how much he had changed since he had started working with and for Minghao. And, maybe, tonight was really going to prove it. When Minghao had finished doing his make-up, Jeonghan looked into the mirror, and, his fingertips stroked down his right cheek faintly. He couldn't quite believe it. 

He still wasn't quite sure if he truly believed just how much Minghao could change how he could be percieved.

-

The scene where Minghao took him too - for Jeonghan - was completely unbelieveable. How the fuck could a place like this exist but have no other interference?

The club was built into the old Rtiz Carlton hotel built in the 1930's, and, from the outside, it looked abandoned, because, techinically, it was.

The club wasn't in the hotel to an outsiders point of view.

But, once inside, things were absolutely changed.

Minghao was right when he had describe it in style as a "English Gentlemen's Club but it's not full of toffs". 

All sorts of men in suits, or, if not suits, in up-market fashion, and, there were a few women around, but, Minghao explained that they kept it seperate. The men were on the first and second floors, and, the women were on the third and fourth floors with the remaining floors in the hotel opened up to everything. A jazz band played, and, along with the music, the scent of alcohol and dry-cleaning and drums and cigarettes hung in the air.

The men there were real men. They were tall and strong and not in the least "pretty boy". Jeonghan's stomach flipped a beat as easy, not entirely intrusive eyes gazed at him as he walked passed with Minghao, and, Minghao went with him into a grilled-door elevator with stained glass lights inside and took him up to the fifth floor of the hotel. 

Jeonghan nearly fell over.

There were scantily clad people everywhere; there were men, there were women, and, then, there were just human beings, both or none or...

"I'll see you later." Minghao kissed Jeonghan's cheek. Jeonghan's eyes went wide. "I've got some business with a M. Dan downstairs. Find me out if you need to. Ciao."

Jeonghan's eyes took in the room around him. It was twice the size of he, Seungcheol and Joshua's whole apartment with paneled walls, polished floorboards, magnificent embroidered drapes almost of a Baroque style with the ceiling painted with a universe like a Gustav Klimt painting and crystal chandeliers. Then, there were the occupants of the room. Most of them were in a array of heels, bare feet, oxfords, boots, mini-dresses, older-world cuts of dress like his, suits in varying levels of completion, and underwear. There was so many women wondering about in just silk petticoats or camisoles and stocking sets, that, Jeonghan felt his head sway for a moment. The hair changed from straight, oiled styles to beehives to marcel-waved bobs and Edwardian-Empir creations. The make-up was mostly noir style going from a 1920's style to the 1960's style through to modern looks. A dream-like state of noir music in French language played from a band at one end of the room, and, Jeonghan made an effort to stop lingering in the doorway. It was no good to just linger in the doorway.

To his surprise, a couple of girls caught his eye, and, it surprised him for two reasons: one, he thought he would be looking for a guy and wanting a guy, two, he was dressed up like a woman for that night but, any other time, was happy with his penis. He was still quite happy with what was between his legs, even if he was in a frock, to be more correct.

It just felt funny. 

As Jeonghan walked to the north end of the room where huge, huge multi-paned windows stood, he fell into step with a man a couple of meters ahead of him, and, he seemed quite fit, but, Jeonghan hadn't seen his face.

Horrifically for his position, Jeonghan's mind strayed to thinking about Joshua far too much, and, Jeonghan began to feel how by himself he was.

"Hello."

Jeonghan's head turned to the side as a voice spoke to him. He nearly lost it.

The man speaking to him was an utter fucking Adonis.

He was tall and fit without been garishly muscled with gently curling and thick black hair that seemed to grow a bit more at the front in a swift, kinky curl and was naturally smooth and short at the black. He wore big black glasses and, his face was utterly gorgeous. He had light brown skin with upwardly-curved, hooded eyes with thick straight eyebrows, a nose that curved outwardly handsome, a full mouth that didn't look garish either, and a sharp, angular jaw on a oval face with a dent in his chin. He wore a white button-up collared shirt with a 1930's style suit in light grey with black oxford shoes and a red tie. Even though he looked absolutely the polar opposite to Joshua, Jeonghan was nearly off his head with utter delight. Oh, yes. This is what you came out for, this is what you got dressed up for, this is what you hoped for.

This is what you wanted.

"Hey." Jeonghan smiled. "How are you?"

Jeonghan had to lean against the bay window seat of the room before taking a seat and reminding himself to get a grip as the young man smiled - Jeonghan thought the man was about his age.

"Really nice night." The man replied. "I'm Neve, lovely to meet you." He held out his hand for Jeonghan to shake, and, when Jeonghan touched him, he glowed inside.

"Jeonghan." Jeonghan smiled, but, he faltered slightly. "Sorry, what did you say your name was again, I'm so sorry?"

Neve smiled faintly and Jeonghan leant forward to hear him better as Neve repeated it. 

Neve sat down beside him, and, the start of a very nice night came about. They talked on and off for the next two hours, and, Jeonghan's skin was happily a-buzz with feeling.

"What are you?" Jeonghan asked.

"Doctor." Neve reminded him.

"No, what are you...?" Jeonghan pointed to Neve's face. After a moment, the penny dropped.

"Oh, I see!" Neve smiled. "French-Iranian."

"You're gorgeous." Jeonghan told him sincerely. Something in Neve's eyes sparkled.

"That's why I'm called why I am." He said. "My Dad is the French one; his name is Hyacinth."

"What? Like the flower?" Jeonghan echoed. Suddenly, he and Neve burst out laughing.

"A friend of mine who grew up in the US told me...there used to be a show on the telelvision - from the UK - called "Keeping Up Appearences" and the woman in that was called -" Jeonghan started, but neve finished his sentence.

"Hyacinth Bucket." Neve grinned.

"Oh, you know that show?" Jeonghan realized.

"Yeah, my Mum introduced my Dad to it specifically because of the shared name." Neve adjusted his glasses high on his nose, and, Jeonghan felt like he transcended into a even more dream-like state. Soon after, in the most gentlemanly terms in the world, Neve asked Jeonghan if he'd like to come home with him. Jeonghan's gaze regarded Neve's beautiful features and asked him if he realized what he was, Jeonghan's hand covering one of Neve's on the window-seat with his own.

"Yes." Neve answered rather simply. "When you tipped your head back when I caused you to laugh a little while ago when I said about my Mother's Hitler impression."

Jeonghan simply stayed silently and took in Neve for a few moments, and, Neve did the same thing for him.

Naturally, and, in a way that was almost spiritual, the two of them came together hand in hand and left the old Ritz Carlton hotel together, and went back to Nassar's currently rented apartment in the back of a black cab with the driver playing a Cigarettes After Sex CD. Even though Neve paid for the cab, Jeonghan slipped the cab driver a tenner for "his immaculate music taste"

"I'll feel the nessecity to do that everytime now I get a cab." Neve remarked to Jeonghan as they leant to either sides of the walls together in the lift seperately. They looked at each other again, and Jeonghan came over to Neve's side of the elevator and leant into his side. 

"You're so beautiful." Jeonghan told Neve, one of Jeonghan's hands pressing against his chest. As the elevator reached the top-most floor, Jeonghan realized that Neve was definitely one of those young Doctor's who had started off on a massive wage or he had money from family or elsewhere tucked away somewhere. Everywhere was swept with the gracious but cool pallette of Danish Art-Deco feel, and, Jeonghan's eyes slipped closed from admiring it as Neve's arms went around his waist and Neve's mouth pressed in a kiss against his neck.

Crikey.

That felt good. 

One of Neve's hands ran across the front of Jeonghan's torso and down his abdomen, making Jeonghan shiver.

He hadn't been this turned on in such a long time, and, even for the months before of being denied by Joshua, who, of course, he knew now, was screwing Minghao, Jeonghan needed it badly.

"My room's through here..." Neve murmured against Jeonghan's skin.

Neve waited outside as Jeonghan changed and stripped in his bedroom, and, some people might take it as a lack of intimacy, but, inside of Jeonghan, something glowed. He was allowed the privacy, and the time, to get of the frock and all it's other fittings, become what he wanted, become the physical, human embodiment of his fetish. Jeonghan hadn't quite thought it would work, but, Minghao was right - yet again. Jeonghan had thought about dressing up with lingerie to make the Devil blush, but, Minghao had reined him in and had convinced him to put on something old-world. "Classy." Minghao had picked that word particualrly with a raised eyebrow as he raided the white-washed Danish wood wardrobe in Sylvia's studio for the said garments. The resulting outfit had been sheer black stockings, a black garter belt pared with black high-waist knickers with lace inserts across Jeonghan's hips, flat stomach, and the top of his abdomen and his lower back just before his backside began. The bra it was paired with was exactly the same, and, Jeonghan thought about keeping the gloves on, and, decided, yes, he would do that. He did the same with his make-up, but, took his hair down and let it be loose.

"You can come." Jeonghan called out for Neve, excitement flooding through his veins, but, he mellowed it down enough for him to still be a dream. Just before Neve came in, Jeonghan lay down across the white covers of Neve's bed, sitting up on his elbows, with his legs still in their stockings crossed.

Jeonghan drank in Neve like oxygen as he came through his bedroom door and leant against the door-frame, doing the exact same thing; drinking in the sight of Jeonghan like oxygen. Neve had opened a few buttons on his shirt and had un-done the collar and the tie was loose around the shirt. He still had most of his clothes on except his shoes and socks. Jeonghan briefly thought that Neve even had nice feet. 

Neeve took a few steps and started to strip. Jeonghan's eyes never left him as his jacket came off to the floor along then with his waistcoat. Jeonghan felt himself grow harder at the sheer sight of Neve's beautiful dark eyes on him as he loosened the tie around his neck and let it fall near weightlessly to the ground. As the next matter came about, Jeonghan just couldn't help himself.

Jeonghan's mouth fell open as Neve took his shirt off.

Oh, Mama.

The man was utterly fucking perfect without been a vain weightlifter or one of those strange dieters.

He was fucking perfect. 

Jeonghan barely noticed Neve's trousers and underwear came off because, it came about so quick for Jeonghan's foggy and high mind that, only a moment after, Neve had moved over the top of him.

"Bring!"

Jeonghan suddenly grinned as Neve's lips just brushed over his.

"Oh, fucking hell, I'm so sorry." Jeonghan said. "I'll turn it off."

"No worries." Neve laid down on his back as Jeonghan shifted off the bed to find his phone in the pocket of his skirt. 

"Oh, you are kidding." Jeonghan scoffed when he saw who it was who had rang him.

"Everything alright?" Concern creeped into Neve's voice.

"It was just one of those fucking telemarketers." Jeonghan explained. Neve laughed.

"Come here." Neve sat on his elbows and held out a hand for Jeonghan.


	43. FORTY-THREE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seokmin visits Wonwoo for a professional opinion on the drunken lawyer Jihoon has picked to handle his divorce case, Seungcheol, Joshua and Minghao visit Jihoon and Joshua puts his foot in it by bringing up Madeleine. Jeonghan is utterly taken with Neve, and, Wonwoo thinks back to the past years of his job, and how he never quite knew if he drive a car thar had a dead body in the boot or not. Jeonghan has cool words for Seungcheol when Seungcheol goes nuts at him about not being home, Joshua goes to give Minghao a serve but Minghao takes him down, and Seungkwan tells Vernon he's in love with him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally got around to writing Seungkwan and Vernons scene :) I hope you like it, and, don't be too disappointed

Seokmin wondered if he had accidentally shot himself in the foot by visiting Wonwoo's office.

Wonwoo had been having lunch in at the obvious, and, Seokmin had felt like kicking in the teeth of the other receptionists and office employees as he was made to wait for two hours in some hall while obviously no one told Wonwoo he was there.

"I will quit this job, I swear. I will fucking quit this job." Wonwoo had murmured, taking Seokmin into his boss's private rooms and locking the door so no one else could come in. The waiting/sitting room where Seokmin should have been was part of the room where Wonwoo had his desk and bookshelves and other working materials. This large room was directly adjoined to his boss's office via a hefty door. The internal architecture and design reminded Seokmin of one of the James Bond films. He commented this to Wonwoo and Wonwoo said it had been a Brit who had been drafted by his boss to re-do his office and accompanying spaces a couple of years ago, so, that would be by.

"It's you I needed to see." Seokmin sat on the edge of Wonwoo's desk and quickly told him what was happening with Jihoon.

"He wants to use this old soak -" Seokmin barely got through speaking when Wonwoo cut him off.

"This wouldn't be a Moon Kyung-han would it?" Wonwoo had slipped his glasses down the bridge of his nose by a few millimeters.

"So, if Jihoon's guy is this guy it doesn't matter if he drinks like a fish?" Seokmin had commented saltily.

Wonwoo nodded. "He's one of the best solicitors in history and because of this he refuses to work for the old cunt in there." Wonwoo minutely shifted his head on an angle in the direction of his boss's office. He explained how any decent accountant that wasn't bent would have the "Old soak's" contact details in case something went wrong, and, that, it didn't matter if Jihoon used "the old soak" because it was the divorce courts they went through. 

Seokmin's head shot around to the door of Wonwoo's boss's office as suddenly a loud moan was heard. It sounded female.

"He's hired a girl for the afternoon." Wonwoo explained to Seokmin simply, as though he was used to it, which, actually, he was. It took Seokmin a bit of time to figure out what Wonwoo meant, and, when he did, his mouth dropped open. Wonwoo went to put his ear-buds into his ears.

"This will go on for hours." Wonwoo remarked quietly.

"That's disgusting." Seokmin genuinely was utterly revolted, glancing another look at the office door and hoping that they didn't hear yet another sound.

"As I said, I will quit this job." Wonwoo tried to demonstrate a form of peace of Seokmin's quickly worsening mood.

"Please say fucking now?" Seokmin hissed, his eyebrows going up. 

Wonwoo shrugged. "There's loose ends I need to tie up."

"Like what?" Seokmin exclaimed but Wonwoo glared, telling him to quiten the fuck down silently.

Wonwoo leant forward a few inches and Seokmin bent over the desk to hear him better.

"The next person I would work for would be Woosung at his company." Wonwoo whispered, and, he efficently explained Woosung's proposal. 

"What, your bloke?" Seokmin's eyes widened.

Wonwoo nodded. He getsured Seokmin to come back closer again. "And if the old cunt screwing that hooker knew it was Woosung I had left to work for - it would be warfare."

"Couldn't you get the Police to sort it out?" Seokmin asked. Wonwoo looked at him like he was stupid.

"It's not as simple as that." Wonwoo murmured. He shifted his laptop on his desk.

"How would you fix it then?" Seokmin said. He genuinely didn't know apart from getting a Clint Eastwood kind of bloke to turn up with a hand-cannon and a rabies-infected tiger or something. 

Wonwoo's hand came around Seokmins' neck and pulled him so close that Seokmin's ear was brushed by Wonwoo's lips. "Woosung has to live under the matter that his Step-Father was part of the IRA before grassing them to the British Secret Service and then he's always been a criminal. If things got ridiculous, it could be solved like that." Wonwoo clicked his tongue softly. "But, for now, you need to go. The old cunt won't notice with been buried inside someone but he has the CCTV for this office connected to his laptop and I don't want him seeing you and thinking that I've been bringing "faggot lovers" up here, please?"

"Since when did you get back!" Minghao, Seungcheol and Joshua opened up their arms one after the other to hug Jihoon and they all chattered on.

"Where's Maddie?" Joshua said as they went through to the kitchen.

"DON'T FUCKING SAY IT!" Soonyoung rushed out of nowhere to the boys - the sitting room, really - and just about shrieked, flapping his hands about.

Jihoon burst out laughing as Seungcheol, Joshua and Minghao stared.

"Oh, the sub-human Maori cunt's right." Jihoon commented conversationally, a humored, affectionate spark in his eyes. He walked over to the kettle and put it on, patting Soonyoung's head. He told the rest to go into the sitting room; the central heating was turned on that day, and, truthfully, it was bloody cold.

Joshua looked to Seungcheol, whispering "What the fuck?" under his breath while Minghao observed a cobweb on the ceiling around the lights, sitting beside Joshua on the couch with their hands entwined while Seungcheol sat on Joshua's other side and looked s much as the ultimate third wheel he was on this occasion.

"She's left him." Minghao said.

"How do you know that?" Seungcheol snapped.

"Isn't it obvious?" Minghao raised an eyebrow delicately.

"So, you actually don't know?" Seungcheol's eyebrows raised.

"Cheol, shut up." Joshua whispered soothingly, touching Seungcheol's knee for a moment before Minghao took his other hand in his own. The act of possession made Joshua smile while Seungcheol reached over and went to viciously twist Minghao's nipple, but, two things stopped him. Jihoon and Soonyoung came into the sitting room, and, with Minghao's virtually downright torture kink, he'd like the pain it'd cause him, and, he'd start trying to get into Joshua's bones in front of everything. When it came to Joshua, Seungcheol was sure Minghao had no shame. Anything went when wanting him, needing him. Seungcheol internally shivered. Dear God, why didn't he do anything to stop it? Fucking hell, why didn't he just encourage Joshua's relationship with Jeonghan?

"All of you can buck up." Jihoon remarked, and carried a tray of coffee and tea and put it on the coffee table once Soonyoung shifted it for him. 

"She decided to leave me because I wasn't a hukkah-cunt like herself." Jihoon explained simply.

"Don't need to be racist about it." Joshua made his second mistake of commenting.

Jihoon threw the tea-pot at his head, and, it hit him, shattering on impact even though Soonyoung grabbed at Jihoon, Seungcheol and Minghao dived into cover Joshua, and, perhaps thankfully, most of the hot, hot tea went out of it before it hit Joshua.

It still left a devestating consequence.

-

Jeonghan woke up in Neve's arms, inhaling breaths in and out against his chest and the vision of a awake Neve watching him through half-lidded eyes, his glasses not one, but, on the bedside table on Jeonghan's side of the bed. 

"Hello." Jeonghan said up to him. Neve gave a half-smile. He had a faint trace of five 'o' clock shadow across his skin and Jeonghan fund it endearingly handsome. 

"Good Morning." Neve answered.

"Ooo, you're so old-fashioned." Jeonghan grinned. He knew he probably looked a mess; all the lipstick was probably gone, and any of the eye-makeup on his eyes would now be underneath them and across his cheekbones. But, maybe, he'd look like a beautiful, after-morning mess. Something that could be a sight that Neve wouldn't be disconcerted by. Jeonghan thought that, either way, Neve had no right to be disconcerted over everything that they did over the last night. 

In no way was Jeonghan ashamed of it. His skin postively sung from the sheer memory. 

Both of them chuckled softly.

-

Joshua had a split lip, a broken eye socket, a broken cheekbone, and, horrific bruising.

Jihoon didn't seem very bothered, but, when both Seungcheol and Soonyoung went balistic at him over it, he coolly remarked, "Well, the goodey-two-shoes cunt's all covered in his scars and bite marks and whip marks and god knows what else from Minghao, isn't he?"

Most of them weren't talking to each other now. 

Joshua eased on Seungcheol and Minghao to not be cross at Jihoon. "I pushed at him when he's obviously grieving." Joshua insisted. "I shouldn't have been so stupid. He's so stressed at the moment when she's putting a claim onto him."

"It was no excuse to do that!"

"And look at all the times you two have lashed out and done things? Lay off about it, guys, for God's sake."

"It's not right!"

"It's not right that that bitch married him and them dumps him in a foreign country where he doesn't speak the language and now has to lose the best part of £500,000 because bloody marriage laws state that there has to be a settlement agreement nearly always in the favour of the woman - and, in this case, she does not deserve it!"

"You look like someone's put coal and something to do with plums on your face."

"And he's going to be a man that's going to lose £500,000 - I'd be freaking out as well!" Joshua exclaimed. We winced as he pulled the muscles in his face. "Can we just do something else or whatever?"

-

Wonwoo told Woosung about seeing Seokmin at his office.

Woosung had nearly laughed himself into a choking fit.

"Oh, your poor things." He giggled, wiping his eyes on the back of his hand. "Disgusting old cunt." He raised a bottle of beer in regard to Wonwoo's boss. Wonwoo rolled his eyes and repeated the commendment of the older man.

"So, when are you going to come to me, then?" Woosung remarked, gazing at Wonwoo through half-lidded eyes across the sitting room. Woosung was standing by the open fireplace and leaning against the side of the mantle on top of the raised brick hearth. Wonwoo was sitting in the centre of the couch, both feet on the ground and holding a glass of whiskey between his knees, posture loose and relaxed.

Wonwoo shrugged. "We'll soon see." He maturely responded. He wasn't sure how to tell Woosung a lot of the things that had gone on over the years. He knew Woosung got the correct idea that some bad things had happened in the past, but, Wonwoo knew Woosung would absolutely explode - completely do his nut - if he knew the extent of some of the things Wonwoo had got involved in due to his current boss.

He glanced up at Woosung, who kept on gazing at him. "What is it?" he asked.

"Just looking at you." Woosung winked softly at him and raised his beer in a toast to Wonwoo.

Wonwoo blushed slightly.

-

Events from two-and-a-half-years-ago:

Wonwoo never quite knew if that Mercedes Benz he had driven home for his boss had had a dead body in the back of it.

And, he never knew if it was just the one time he had been charted to do the task he never quite understood.

Wonwoo sometimes wondered if he was stupid, ignorant, or, just blatantly cold.

Too cold to pick up on what precisely was causing the immaculate suspension of the luxury Germanic cars to go down slightly at the rear end.

Wonwoo knew it had never been drugs or weapons or anything. That wasn't his boss's line of business; drugs weren't his fortey, and, in many degrees, he hated them, and, weapons - you wanted weapons, you called on the Australians.

Yeah, that's an unexpected diagnosis, isn't it?

The only place that had more Irish, Sicilian, Italian, Russian, Yugoslav, French, Chinese, Indonesian, and Fillipino Triad and Mafia movement than the Americas was Australia. All the immigrants had come just after the second world war, and, it wasn't just restaurants, pharmacies, petrol stations and luxury clothing they had bought to the British Empire colony.

How many times had he knotted his hands together as he was put on hold, ordering "Girls" for yet another event for his boss's company, full of sweating, filthy, hairy, aging men to just...

Wonwoo's skin crawled at just the memory.

Wonwoo sometimes thought that if Woosung truly knew the extent of what had gone on, Woosung would never have kissed him.

And, as Wonwoo lay beside Woosung in his bed, he wondered just how Woosung would react.

Wonwoo knew Woosung wouldn't break up with him or do anything like that.

But, what he would do is have his boss's knee-caps shot out. 

And that wasn't any shit.

Woosung truly would.

Wonwoo regarded the ceiling, and, he wondered that even though Woosung insisted he had nothing to do with his IRA step-father, Wonwoo couldn't help thinking that this man had made quite the animal - even if it was kept inside - of Woosung.

-

"You don't have to go in, you know. You can just not go in to work." Woosung reasoned to a sleepless Wonwoo.

"Woosung, I -" Wonwoo began, but, of course, it was Mingyu who had to interrupt.

Mingyu running out of the front door and across the lawn hollering at the top of his lungs:

"WONWOO, FOR FUCK'S SAKE, WHY ARE YOU NEVER AT HOME? WILL YOU FUCKING COME BACK, IT'S ALL KICKING OFF!"

Wonwoo rushed out of the front door while Woosung looked through his kitchen window at his lover's house-mate in not a great deal of clothing flapping his hands about exciteably.

"Will you shut up?!" Wonwoo demanded of Mingyu swiftly, driving him back inside. Mingyu had just jogged out onto the front lawn in his navy undercrackers and a grey sleeping shirt.

"Jihoon threw a tea-pot at Joshy and smashed half his face in!" Mingyu shouted. Wonwoo shoved him out of the way and ran back to Woosung's.

"One normal fucking day, please, fucking Christ art thou in a Jew's arse...!" Wonwoo swore as he raced through Woosung's house to find his phone.

The first thing he did was ring Jihoon.

"A little birdy in anavy undercrackers just told me you smashed Josh's face in because your fat Maori chick left you." Wonwoo heaved breathlessly. Unbeknowest to him, Woosung, having heard all he just said, face-palmed himself in his kitchen as then Wonwoo dumped his phone on Woosung's bed as Jihoon went absolutely fucking ballistic at him over the line.

-  
Jeonghan left Neve's home with his phone number in his phone and a date made in the appointment diary for Thursday evening, and a lipstick mark on Neve's cheek.   
"WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN, YOON JEONGHAN?!" Seungcheol's voice roared as Jeonghan just got inside the front door. Jeonghan took one look at Seungcheol and giggled.

"Look, love, I don't have the capacity to be fucking with you when my directory is so simple and you keep using other people's faces as a mirror for you." Jeonghan commented easily and happily, sauntering past Seungcheol and kissing his cheek. "I think I just found the one, and, fuck, the miracle twelve inch penis -" Jeonghan had up his index fingers on each hand at a twelve inch distance. "Your future brother-in-law, ooo!"

Seungcheol was speechless as Jeonghan went down the hallway to the bathroom.

Joshua came into the kitchen. "I'll kill him." He remarked.

"So will I." Seungcheol scoffed, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"No, I'll kill Minghao, you can get around to Jeonghan or whatever." Joshua explained.

"What's he got to do with it?" Seungcheol frowned.

"Look at what Hannie's wearing; that's come out of that bloody wardrobe in Sylvia's studios." Joshua pointed after the long-gone Jeonghan. The sudden understanding washed over Seungcheol's being.

"Ok, ok, but please be careful, your face is -" He started to say, but, Joshua cut him off soothingly.

"Cheol, it's ok, don't fuss over me." Joshua patted his back. He gazed at Seungcheol. "Well, it always had to happen?" He gestured through the wall where the stove and kitchen was to where their bedrooms were in the hall. They were silent for a long while, just standing there.

"Ok, ok, see you later." Seungcheol suddenly said to Joshua. They both jumped into action.

"You, too." Joshua quickly said, getting his coat off the rack by the front door and heading out.

-

"Minghao!" Joshau exclaimed, ready to go fucking mental at Minghao as he opened the front door to his house. Joshua thought he had already made a bit of an embarrassment of himself. He had gone over and knocked on Sylvia's front door - well, what had been her front door - before he noticed that all the lights at Minghao's across the road were turned on, and, he swore the curtain in one of the rooms on the second floor twitched. Shit.

Minghao stepped out of the way for Joshua to come inside, and, closed the door after the older man. Just as Joshua's mouth opened to give him an earful, Minghao's fingertips touched Joshua's face.

"Hey, what are you -" Joshua was broken off from talking just by Minghao been there.

"Just checking on you." Minghao whispered. He looked over Joshua's face and how it was still very stiff on one side from the wrapping tape, holding everything in place so it could heal.

He and Joshua looked at each other.

"What is it?" Minghao asked calmly. Joshua deflated.

"Jeonghan been gone for a night, then a whole day, then the start of a morning." Joshua bluntly put it.

"Oh, yeah, I gathered he got cosy with someone." Minghao remarked.

"He could have gotten cosy with a axe murdurer." Joshua frowned.

"Yeah, funny sort of guy, isn't he?" Minghao commented drily.

Joshua and Minghao looked at each other silently for a few moments before chuckling softly. Joshua hissed in bad, bad pain as his face moving made it really, really hurt. A temporary anathesic botox-like treatment had been put into his face by his eye socket and cheekbone beneath the wrapping-tape where they would just have to heal up by themselves over the next twelve weeks, and, if things didn't go well, he might need a light dose of cosmetic surgery to straighten everything back to a normal state.

Joshua hoped to fucking hell it didn't have to come that.

"Urgh, for fuck's sake, you're an arsehole." Joshua told Minghao.

Minghao pressed him easily up against the wall in the hallway, his hands on Joshua's chest. 

"You don't mind." He murmured just before his mouth covered Joshua's.

\- 

"Vern, are you home?" Seungkwan called as he unlocked the front door of their house and stepped inside, work-bag over his shoulder. A instrumental soundtrack that Seungkwan knew as something by The 1975 from one of their albums - Seungkwan knew it so well without listening to the band that he thought it might be from their album I LIKE IT WHEN YOU SLEEP FOR YOU ARE SO BEAUTIFUL YET SO UNAWARE OF IT - played from the kitchen.

"Yeah, mate, want some grog?" Vernon called out to him. Matty Healy's Manchester accent sung about either turning the light off before someone went or not turning off the light. Seungkwan went into the kitchen after putting his shoes and bag by the bottom of the stars. 

Seungkwan rolled his eyes. "You're so blokey." He took a seat on the corner edge of the south end of the kitchen table, and Vernon was sitting at the north end, also on the diagonal edge. Vernon smiled crookedly, a bottle of beer opened and the oven turned on. Seungkwan thought it might be something Anglo Vernon was cooking; whatever was, it smelt nice. 

"Probably 'cause I am a bloke." Vernon quipped. "But, might I add, been a bloke doesn't mean you're a fuckin' yobbo?" He pointed, as evidence, to whatever it was that was cooking in the oven.

"Ok." Seungkwan laughed.

"How were the bubbas, today?" Vernon asked.

"Mostly just the one-month-stage check-ups, but, one baby came in with a exzema problem." Seungkwan replied.

"Ah, poor little thing." Vernon's brows creased inwardly slightly.

"I shouldn't be like this but she looked like she'd been out in the sun at the beach just that little bit too long." Seungkwan admitted stiltedly.

Seungkwan and Vernon laughed, Vernon's head tipping back and raising a bottle of beer to his lips while Seungkwan pressed his hands to his face and ducked his head shamefully. He and Vernon suddenly got up and began dancing to the 1975 song as it got more upbeat, so upbeat that you just couldn't sit still and listen to it. You had to dance. Three times, Vernon caught Seungkwan from dancing into the oven and burning his arm on the hot glass, and, Seungkwan had nearly pissed himself laughing as their little blue heeler puppy had come racing into the kitchen, happily wagging her tongue, when Vernon had crashed into the fridge and had gone arse over head.

The song, it seemed, was on a playlist. The next song - also an instrumental - that played - Seungkwan definitely knew it. It was called "Please Be Naked". That was the only reason why Seungkwan knew it; not overly meaning it, he had been doing the annual tax forms last year and had asked Vernon what it was. He had choked on his tea and had spluttered all over the tax documents when Vernon had said, "Please Be Naked." Even though Seungkwan wasn't a fan, he could sometimes understand why Vernon had a deep connection to the music that that Pommy band created. Their music created moments like this, where, important things happened. Important moments. Important moments that needed soundtracks. Memories. Hope. Utter inspiring love. Tenderness. Humanism. And hope. Just more and more and more hope.

"I love you." Seungkwan told Vernon. Even though Vernon wasn't quite drunk, but, was beginning to be inclined towards it, he gazed intently at Seungkwan. They were sitting back in their original postions at the kitchen table, but, the blue heeler puppy was under the table with her head on her paws, watching the oven interestedly and picking up on the smell of whatever it was cooking.

"I know." Vernon said.

"Vern -" Seungkwan went to start again.

"I've always known." Vernon told him. 

Seungkwan felt himself stop inside. "...You...?" He trailed off faintly and incredulously. A new record began to play; The 1975. The only track that Seungkwan could secretly admit he liked. Everything was a whirlwind to him. The foreign languaged music and the depth of Vernon's dark eyes and the line of his jaw. Seungkwan could barely feel his body alive, but, yet, his heartbeat was racing, thumping quickly like a pagan drum at the hollow of his throat.

Vernon hummed softly. "I thought things might change a bit as we got older." He admitted, still gazing at Seungkwan. "I thought I could help you with everything, because, you're one of me best mates and how long have we lived together?" vernon smiled a little bit. It started to rain, thick and dark thunderclouds swirling overhead and covering the city for miles, stretching all the way to the horizon. "It's why I never moved out, got you to move out, anything." Vernon took in a sip of beer. "Kwannie, come 'ere, love." He held out his arm, and, from the other side of the kitchen table, Seungkwan shifted into the seat beside Vernon. Vernon pulled Seungkwan into his body and rested his head on top of Seungkwans. "You know I can't love you like that, don't you, love?" Vernon said. "I'm sorry." He kissed the top of Seungkwan's head, and, Seungkwan had to close his eyes. "So, when you were asking a couple of months ago about things changing, I meant it when I said it won't. You and me livin' in this house, you lookin' after bubbas and me killing clients who won't fucking pay, the cunts..."

Seungkwan chuckled, looking up to Vernon.

"This is just how it is." Vernon gestured around. "Everything."

"So...you won't start dating me, can't start dating me, but, nonetheless, you love me and we're still going to live in this house, because...it's me and you?" Seungkwan echoed.

Vernon hummed softly before leaning his head against Seungkwan's, breathing him in. 


	44. FORTY-FOUR

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanessa gets Junhui to go on a date with her Jewish niece after a string of disastrous dates on the Australian LGBT scene, Joshua tries to information out of Jeonghan about his new man in the bath, and, Wonwoo's boss demands along with a cash payment that Wonwoo shores his body out for a gay customer. His anguish over the matter makes the well-meaning Mingyu pang! Woosung, thinking that Wonwoo us upset because Woosung dumped him, not the actual horror he has to face

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Early in this book I wrote a panging! scene. It's sort of being revived :)

Junhui had been on three dates.

The gays in Australia were worse than East Asia.

They were the most ridiculous, overly-effiminate, ignorant, selfish, deceitful, arrogant, bizarre fucking cunts he had ever came across.

They were genuinely all utter arsholes.

Junhui just couldn't believe it

Fucking hell

He and Minghao must have been the only normal ones; the only ones that didn't become a monomaniac with their sexuality. The three dates that Junhui had been on had been so embarrassing, because, everything his dates had to do had to be gay.

It utterly suffocated him.

Revolted him, even.

He could see where Vanessa had a issue with them.

But, Junhui wasn't sure if that was an excuse for this.

Vanessa had set him up on a date with her twenty-something year old niece.

A blind date.

And Junhui didn't understand it, because, it was one of Vanessa's sayings; "Fucking wogs -" As she didn't like the Mediterranians. "Camel-jockey rag-heads -" She didn't like anyone from the Middle-East or North Africa. "And Jews -" No derrogative term as she was one of them. "Don't date fucking slopes."

It turned out that apart from Junhui, she had an issue with "slopes" as well.

But, it begged the question.

Why the hell was he going on a date with a Jew then?

"Ah, Junnie, don't worry, my love." Vanessa had kissed his cheek in a rather "woggy" way considering she hated "wogs" with a passion. "She is so gorgeous!"

Junhui made himself remember that this was a Jew talking. Vanessa had said it herself. Jews were one race full of lying cunts.

Second to the Germans who were just irreverant cunts -

Junhui thought about life back in South Korea, fuck, even just Asia. 

You never ever saw a Jew in South Korea.

Junhui knew he was thinking himself into a bad mood. 

But, it was like a train-wreck.

Absolutely unstoppable.

Junhui wondered if maybe Vanessa knew better. Knew before him that he was sick of men who were just a constant let-down.

It had been months since he had come to Australia, and, he was never quite sure if he had ever really worked her out. 

-

"Are you thinking about that date of yours?" Joshua asked. He was in the bath, and, instead of Jeonghan trying to have a conversation with him through the bathroom door, Joshua had just told Jeonghan to come in. Jeonghan was sitting down on the bath-mat beside the tub, one of his hands holding onto his ankle, sitting cross-legged. He had his other hand shoved into his hair, and his elbow rested on the edge of the bath-tub. He gazed down at the tiled floor of the bathroom, giving Joshua a form of privacy as he tried to get clean

"Maybe, why?" Jeonghan's head tipped to the side against his hand, looking at Joshua.

"Your face is all blotchy and pink." Joshua gestured to Jeonghan's skin.

Jeonghan smiled. Joshua's skin was all blotchy and pink too from the hot, steaming bath-water.

"Am I ever going to find out about him?" Joshua inquired, pushing a hand through his sopping wet hair which still had soap in it. Jeonghan smiled again and fetched a empty container from under the vanity which Joshua usually used to rinse his hair off with.

"No, not really." Jeonghan shook his head.

Joshua rolled his eyes.

"He's a very good man." Jeonghan insisted. He stopped speaking and just watched while Joshua, with his eyes closed, didn't know that Jeonghan watched him while he tipped hot bath water over his head and used his other hand to shag and rinse all the soap out.

"In what way good?" Joshua raised an eyebrow when he had done, rubbing water from his eyes.

"Ah, I'd be telling then, wouldn't I?" Jeonghan winked with a click of his tongue.

-

"Wonwoo."

"Yes, sir?" Wonwoo looked up from his typing to his boss with his rounding stomach and balding head in his suit, standing before him. His boss wasn't fat, but, well, it was obvious that he had put on a bit of pudding.

"Lock everything down and step into my office. I have a matter to discuss." He ordered Wonwoo authoritavely.

Wonwoo's insides sunk.

This was what he always said when it was something that could seriously fuck up Wonwoo's life.

Nevertheless, Wonwoo shut down his laptop, closed off the lights in the office, locked the door to the private space and set it that only a security-key-card could open it, before going into his boss's private study. 

"I have a different sort of customer coming in." Boss said shortly.

"In what way different, sir?" Wonwoo asked.

"Something wrong with him inside." Boss's eyes looked directly into his.

Wonwoo glanced away. "My apologies, sir, but you will have to explain." He said.

"A cow's hoove." Boss said with such a calmness that it cracked Wonwoo up. 

Wonwoo frowned slightly, before, smiling incredulously. "I'm sorry, again, sir, I don't know what you mean, I'm not old enough." He laughed a little bit. His boss smiled.

"A cow's hoove." The older man repeated.

Wonwoo shrugged, trying to stop his features quirking up. He hoped his boss knew he wasn't taking the piss out of him.

"A poof." Boss sighed.

Wonwoo blinked. His insides sunk even further.

"Before you were born, young man, if someone was a homo you either said that or you said a "cow's hoove." Dirty filthy cunts." Boss looked to Wonwoo. "This is where you come in, and, before you start, for your efforts there will be a package for you that the tax man shall never know about." The man smiled greasily.

Wonwoo realized what his boss meant...finally.

He wanted Wonwoo to whore himself out for this apparently homosexual business person who he wanted something off.

Wonwoo's skin drained of all colour.

"Come off it." His boss regarded him. "What sort of self-respecting man unless he's a fucking faerie does this job?"

Wonwoo didn't say anything.

"£25,000 in cash." His Boss told him. "No thoughts. You're doing it." That horrific smile came back on his face. "That's the only human thing about you, you filthy fucking pansy." Boss commented. "The grab for money."

-

Wonwoo ran to Woosung's front door and knocked on it quickly, desperately. He wailed as he found that his man wasn't home. Wonwoo jogged back up the hill and to his own front door, and, he ran up the stairs before Mingyu could come back from the kitchen and find out what the matter was. Wonwoo locked his bedroom door, and, the last person he wanted to see was bloody Mingyu when the man knocked on the door. Wonwoo stood over by the writing desk in his room, shivering.

"Wonu, what's the matter?" Mingyu asked. "Come on, mate, let me in."

"No, Gyu, just fuck off away from me." Wonwoo's voice caught out with a badly-contained sob, and, he pressed his hands curved into a fist, one over the other, to his mouth as the tears spilled down his cheeks. "There's nothing you can do. Just fuck off."

Unbeknownst to Wonwoo, it was Mingyu's belief that the only thing that could make Wonwoo this upset was, no, not his work, not potentially anything at work, but, Woosung.

Mingyu thought Woosung had dumped Wonwoo.

So, when Woosung came home at half-ten later that night, Mingyu, to put it politely, was a wee bit cross with him, and, decided, to put it politely again, "to have a word".

"Fucking prick!" Mingyu hit Woosung across his shoulder and neck with one decent, solid wack with his old solid cedar-wood cricket bad. "Let me guess - you've dumped Woo for a fucking chic with silicone titties or something?"

Mingyu stood back as Woosung groaned and got himself up into a sitting position, watching the cricket bat warily. "What are you on about?" Woosung said. "I haven't dumped Wonwoo. I haven't done anything like that."

"Yeah, you sure about that?" Woosung covered himself as Mingyu mockingly swung the bat again, but, stopped it just an inch off Woosung's temple where the blow would have been hard enough to cause him serious damage.

"Yes, for fuck's sake, yes!" Woosung shouted.

It was Woosung's shout that had woken up Wonwoo who, after a few hours, had just collapsed into a exhaustion-induced comatose state on his bed. Wonwoo rushed to the window and opened it, leaning out to see his best friend beating up his man on his driveway.

"MINGYU, WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO HIM?!" Wonwoo shrieked frightfully.

"ALL'S WELL, DEAR, GO BACK TO SLEEP!" Mingyu called up cheerfully as Woosung yelled, "SOMEONE COME AND HELP ME SORT THIS FUCKING SHIT OUT, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE!"

"I'LL RIP YOUR FUCKING FACE APART!" Wonwoo shieked again, rushing down the stairs.

"You're so in for it." Mingyu grinned down a the bleeding and battered Woosung.

"You fucking sure about that?" Woosung remarked.

The whole world could have told Mingyu that Woosung was right.

"YOU SHIT OF A MAN!"

Pang!

Mingyu was promptly beaten over the head with a cold frying pan.

"YOU FUCKING MORON!" Wonwoo yelled, giving Mingyu, now on the ground, a kick in the chest for good measure. He dived down to get Woosung off of the ground.

"What do you think I've done?" Woosung said up to Mingyu, the two men really in a great amount of pain. Slowly, Mingyu started to looked very frail.

"He was really upset, before." Mingyu barely whispered. "I thought you had dumped him."

The older, and much wiser man looked up at him. "Help me up."

"Woosung, I'm so sorry -"

"HELP ME UP!" Woosung roared. Mingyu scrambled and help the man get to his feet. Both of them groaned, aching terribly from the blows from all sides. Mingyu's vision swam disconcertingly dark, and, it frightened him. "Come inside." With his other side, Woosung put an arm around the much younger man, and, between the two of them, they shuffled up the hill and inside. Mingyu collapsed onto the couch in the sitting room while Woosung dragged himself upstairs.

He knocked on Wonwoo's closed bedroom door before resting his forehead against it. "Love, just let me in." Woosung asked. "Whatever it is, we can work it out, love."

Wonwoo eventually opened the door for Woosung, and, the two men simply gazed at each other tired. The two of them were just so tired. So, so tired. Woosung came into Wonwoo's room and laid down on the bed, getting beneath the covers fully-clothed. Wonwoo did the same before immediately tucked himself up against Woosung's strong front, Wonwoo's head beneath Woosung's chin. 

Wonwoo slowly and carefully told Woosung all that had happened. There was no going back, not after this. Maybe that was why Wonwoo had been silent for so long; he had stopped breathing. He had just...

He couldn't change it now. Nothing could be changed now. 

One of Wonwoo's hands came up from over Woosung's strong back and touched his hair. His nails ran through it, just the way he knew Woosung liked it, the light drag, the scratch, against his scalp. "I always like it when you do that." Woosung told him once. "Because, you see, I haven't got the nails for it."

Wonwoo remembered laughing at the memory. Laughing with Woosung. 

"Do you think things have got too crazy lately?" Wonwoo asked. "That things...we've been hurting each other too much lately? All of us?"

"You're all too young to be coping with stuff like this." Woosung kissed the top of Wonwoo's head. "You're all far too young."

-

Junhui walked into the Sydney harbourside restaurant with Vanessa, the Jewish woman insisting that his arm was tightly tucked into hers. She was going to drop him off - "And make sure you're with the right woman." She had insisted - and then go home to her husband and children. Vanessa had told him to come around to their home on Sunday, no matter how the date went, so he could meet her husband and children, the British-Empire tradition of Sunday Lunch. "I'll do chicken for you instead of lamb, you'll like it better." She had added after telling him of the invitation.

"Thomasina, this is Junhui." Vanessa introduced him. Junhui's jaw dropped open.

Thomasina was a tall and willowly figured girl with a fatless heart-shaped Israelite-Svardhostski Jewish face with incredible cheekbones, wide-set mildly slanted green eyes with short hair combed and oiled back in a dark-latte toned trouser suit with a waiscoat, a button up shirt with collar and a mellow green and dark grey diagonally striped tie. She was obviously a lesbian, and taking in on the old-world Anglo fashion, or...

Could she be...

Wow.

That was all Junhui could think.

Bloody...wow.

"Have a nice night." Vanessa sat Junhui down and excused herself, walking away with a confident swish of her hips, the heads of every heterosexual male in the resturant twisted around on all angles to get to see the sight of her. 

"Hello." Thomasina greeted Junhui, smiling warmly and sensually, resting her chin on her fist, her elbow on the edge of the table, her legs crossed. She was utterly gorgeous.

Junhui was speechless. He suddenly felt that he looked like a bit of a twat in a denim jacket and old jeans in the upmarket restaurant. 

"Hey." He blinked rapidly, smiling shyly. Thomasina didn't seem to mind. 

"So you're Aunt Nessa's slave?"

Junhui chuckled. "Mm-hm." He nodded.

"Felt the whip yet?" Thomasina made a soft cracking noise with her mouth. Junhui grinned.

"We cope ok." He answered.

"You must have fun?" Thomasina's mouth quirked up on one side. "She's wicked."

Junhui laughed softly, wrapping his hands around each elbow and hunching his shoulders, sliding back in a comfortable recline in his seat at the table. He gazed at Thomasina, and, effortlessly, he felt himself telling her all about the last few months. Some parts made her laugh and smile widely, and, other parts made her gaze as intently as him as he did at her. 

-

"And then her eyes cry..." 

Wonwoo stared numbly ahead in the sitting room of the private and largest suite in one of Seoul's grandest hotels, his fingertips sliding gently in loose, millimetric grips against the dark fabric of his trousers. He swallowed, his dry throat aching.

Even Woosung hadn't been able to save him from this.

Wonwoo's eyes slid to the side, looking at the vinyl record-player playing a Dansk-English soft-focused jazz song. He had put it on to try and relax, but, he just felt even worse, even sadder. 

"And then your eyes cry..."

The fingertips on one hand gently touched the cold skin of his face.

"We love cry..."

There was no way Wonwoo could get out of it. He was just going going to have to....


	45. FORTY-FIVE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The world is off to a bang with a new sprouted happiness in Jihoon's independent singledom, Joshua's healed face, Jeonghan's French-Iranian lover Neve, and, the signs of forgiveness between Junhui and Minghao with the gentle interference of Seokmin and Soonyoung, and, Chan's wedding announcement

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't updated this work in the longest time; I got so tired of it, and, all intent of it's creation abandoned me. I needed to move on, but, a very lovely person as bought me back to it <3<3<3 
> 
> So, here is the beginning of the continuation of WHAT DOES IT MATTER IF I LIE TO YOU, now dedicated to Haf 
> 
> (Btw, the song is JUMP FOR MY LOVE by The Pointer Sisters)

Jihoon knocked on Joshua and Minghao's front door. He ran a hand through his hair as Joshua opened the door. The wrapping of his face had come off, and, there was now only natural swelling in place with mild bruising from where the temporary anaesthetic material put into his face had been taken out.

"I'm so sorry." Jihoon said immediately. Joshua held his arms out for a hug, and, the smaller Jihoon stepped into them.

"I'm sorry, too." Joshua pulled away after a few minutes and patted down Jihoon's hair, combing his fingers through it. "Do you want to go out or something? Hao's across the road with Han." Joshua pointed to Sylvia's house.

Jihoon agreed.

"I need new music." He termed as suggestion.

Joshua conceded that he did too.

But, Joshua was wrong in his thoughts. Jeonghan wasn't with Minghao.

Seokmin and Soonyoung were with Minghao keeping the peace in a referring status, for, there was one particular reason:

Junhui on facetime.

Soonyoung and Seokmin sat tightly either side of Minghao on the floor in the studio as they chattered to Junhui, Minghao's laptop stacked on a couple of thick naturalism volumes written by Emile Zola, a favourite author of Sylvia's. Whenever Minghao became quiet, Soonyoung and Seokmin filled in the gaps easily. Junhui had a lot to say about Australia, and, most of it was very funny. There was a 80's song playing in the background, and, of course, Soonyoung and Seokmin were in their element: Minghao held the laptop with the screen to his chest, so Junhui could see the boys doing a conga line around Sylvia's studio in random pearl necklaces, slip-on velvet heels, and feather-boas they had scooped out of the paneled Danish wardrobe.

"Better jump for my love

Jump in and feel my touch

Jump!

If you want it I'll get you through the night, man

Jump for my love!

Jump!

I know my heart can make you happy

Jump in!

You know these arms can fill you up

Jump!

If you want it I'll get you through the night, man

Jump for my love!"

He felt strange inside. Hearing Junhui's voice again, properly, after so many months. So much time. And time it was. So much time had passed.

The dawning realization left a gap in Minghao; it was the type of gap though that no one could fill. Not Joshua, not Seokmin or Soonyoung or any of the other's. The gap was, curiously, rich and wholesome. It made Minghao unsteady. Unsteady because he knew that so much of it had to do with Junhui.

And it was Junhui...

Wasn't it?

Eventually the laughs came to an end and Minghao was given time to himself by Seokmin and Soonyoung for Junhui.

"Are you still with Josh?" Junhui aasked Minghao.

Minghao nodded. He began to talk to Junhui, and, soon, so many things came out. The comedic, apalling, dishonest, cheeky, violent, meaningful behaviours of all of them and what those behaviours had caused. And the change. In many ways, just change.

"Are you happy?" Junhui came to ask Minghao.

"Sorry?" Minghao looked down at Junhui's optimistic face.

"But are you happy?" Junhui repeated.

Minghao hesitated.

"I'm not sure," He admitted. "I thought I was happy but now I don't know if I ever was actually sure of it."

-

After Junhui had finished the facetime call, he went back into his bedroom to see Thomasina asleep, still in his bed. He didn't mind in the slightest. Her back was pale and naked and pretty with the odd spot scars from adolesence. She was naturaly. Heavenly. Honest. And coarse in some ways without being un-gracious.

Junhui reached out over the linen to touch her.

They weren't quite dating. There was something too flippant and repulsively ordinairy about a announcement such as that.

No. This was something else. Something special.

Junhui hovered on the thought of what it could be.

Because imagine how wonderful it would be if that was it?

Butterflies flew in Junhui's stomach.

Yes.

How lovely that would be.

-

"FUCK A FUCKING BRICK!" Jihoon shouted out.

A old man on a foger had just ran over his foot in a bid to beat Jihoon and Joshua to the traffic lights.

Joshua thought that this was hilarious.

"Oh, you bastard!" Jihoon told Joshua off, hopping about on one foot, his hands wrapped around the sore foot.

"You've got a lot of anger for a small man." Joshua mused with a large grin on his face.

Jihoon squinted up at Joshua, the sun catching at his sight just at that moment from by the top of Joshua's left ear.

There was just times when a man was too good-looking. 

Jihoon considered kicking Joshua in the ankle but decided against it.

They waited at the traffic lights.

"I wish that I was taller." Jihoon once again mused over his short height.

Joshua snorted a laugh.

"I'm hungry." He responded. "Where's that shop with the mushroom pasties?"

"Back up the other way." Jihoon pointed a thumb over his shoulder.

The men turned on their heels and went in the other direction just as the green man on the crossing lights appeared and the driver's in their cars did their nuts, gesturing angrily at Jihoon and Joshua.

They had lunch inside the bakery with the vaulted ceiling and the commentary for the cricket playing on the radio.

Both men were covered in golden and pale pastry flakes that seemed to shine as well, and, neither of them minded the mild mess.

"I feel happy." Joshua told Jihoon.

"Good." Jihoon grinned.

Jihoon knew he shouldn't have done it really, but, his eyes observed Joshua's body for any visible signs of he and Minghao's violent sex. The word even floated about beneath Jihoon's scalp.

Violent.

Jihoon knew it was probably the mix of the white sunlight from the skylight in the vaulted ceiling of the bakery mingling with the darker but not un-natural light of the bakery itself, but, he could have sworn he saw bruising around Joshua's wrist.

If Jihoon had not known that Joshua always healed and that it all came from pleasure, his stomach would have quaked uneasily.

Jihoon chuckled softly.

"What are you doing tonight?" He asked Joshua.

Joshua smiled. "I'm glad you asked that, actually."

"Why's that?" Jihoon flushed slightly.

"I've been trying to think of something to do with Cheol." Joshua told Jihoon.

"What's up with him?" Jihoon questioned.

"Nothing." Joshua said. "And that's the thing."

-

Jeonghan was bustling aroundd Neve's place in jeans, a shirt, and his hair in a knot on the back o his head.

Things couldn't have been lovelier.

Jeonghan watched the washing machine as it ran away in the laundry while Neve talked to his Father, Hyacinthe, on Skype.

Neve had found out all about Minghao and Jeonghan's modeling for him.

The result had been jeonghan recieveing one of the nicest kisses of his life.

Neve did this thing where the tip of his tongue slipped beneath the curve of Jeonghan's upper lip only by a millimetre or so as he pulled off from most kisses.

Things were extroadinairy.

Jeonghan glanced over behind his shoulder as he heard Neve's footsteps coming down the hall. He smiled as Neve came in and kissed his temple.

"Thank you for doing this for me." Neve told him.

Jeonghan sucked back the taste of some chewing gym he had against his molars.

"No worries." Jeonghan told him. "How's your Father?"

"I can't help but half-giving him a assessment over the internet." Neve grinned. "I go into Doctor mode."

"Is he ill?" Jeonghan hoped for a positive answer. He wouldn't know what to do otherwise.

"No, no! Just blood pressure." Neve hurried to assure him. "Not too bad or anything. Joys of getting older."

"I'm not getting old." Jeonghan told Neve. "I refuse to get old."

Neve laughed. "I should hope for that too." He decided.

"Yeah, you should." Jeonghan squeezed his arm. "For us both."

Just as Neve rested his head on the top of Jeonghan's, the washing machine screeched that it had done it's job.

"Like my Grandmother that thing." Neve grinned as Jeonghan jolted in fright beside him. 

"I didn't expect it to do that." Jeonghan confessed.

"Thank God Gran is dead otherwise you'd have the same with her." Neve let Jeonghan to un-load the machine.

-

Joshua steadily got Seungcheol to tip green tea down his throat so he could hold off the worse bit of illness due to binge-drinking the next morning.

They were at Minghao's house with the man in question cooking a Midnight fried rice in the kitchen for Joshua, Jihoon and Seungcheol.

The men were collapsed in the sitting room with the lamps and the television turned on.

"Is that "8 OUT OF 10 CATS DOES COUNTDOWN"?" Minghao asked as he came into the sitting room with three large bowls of rice.

Joshua giggled. "Baby," He smiled lovingly up at Minghao as Minghao tucked himself into Joshua's side.

"Oh, yuck." Seungcheol's face went distinctly cartoon-like while Jihoon laughed. 

"Soon there will be the pitter-patter of tiny baby feet in this house." Jihoon made Seungcheol's drunk face go even more apalled.

"I love you." Joshua kissed Minghao's cheek.

"I need a girlfriend." Seungcheol looked quite deflated after hearing that.

"...Or a Pagan wedding?" Minghao softly suggested.

The men looked at him.

"Chan and Christine-Elena are getting married." Minghao told them. 

-

Junnui thought that Australia was the only place in the world where one could do this sort of thing.

Thomasina giggled behind him in dark-red round-lensed sunglasses with a light-blue and small orange-spotted turban over her short hair.

They were nude sun-bathing on the flat roof of Junhui's apartment.

"This is wonderful." Junhui said with full honesty. 

"This is Australia." Thomasina tweaked her sunglasses.

-

"Married?" Joshua asked, naked on he and Minghao's bed, as Minghao tied shibari rope knots prettily over his ribs.

"Hm." Minghao nodded.

"When? How?" Joshua insisted. "Chan's too young to be getting married!"

Minghao licked a line between Joshua's rib-cage. Joshua shuddered. Minghao slid down Joshua's body and swiped his tongue over Joshua's belly-button before delving in.

"Oh, fuck...!" Joshua squirmed.

"WE'RE DOWN HERE!" Seungcheol roared while Jihoon cackled, to the couple upstairs, while, as ever, the sound of the telly was put up louder to interact with the noise.

But, the thing was, it was Bathurst they were watching.

The sound of ochre Australian-accented commentary and the blast of supercharged v8 engined holden cars filled the house with a devestating sense of protest to all good sense.

"When?!" Joshua didn't let it drop.

"...'Bout an hur ago." Minghao shrugged before kissing Joshua's abdomen and making him scream in frustration.

-

The stars shone down over the world, but, that night, particuarly to the home of Chan and Christine-Elena. 

Nature always did have a bloody wonderful time when there was a pagan wedding.


	46. FORTY-SIX

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chan chats to Vernon and Seungkwan about the wedding, Jihoon and Seungcheol negotiate with a loved-up Minghao and Joshua, Seungkwan and Vernon find out a bit more about Christine-Elena's family, Soonyoung and Seokmin give Junhui a lecture on chaos beneath the Australian sun, and, Minghao and Jeonghan begging a capagnolia themed project

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've always been crap at writing notes, but, one recommendation for a particular someone - Haf, as I know you like ABBA, there is a Russian singer called Alyona Yarushina who does a AMAZING cover of Dancing Queen. I thought you might like it <3

"That is the most beautiful necklace." Vernon said with full honesty, looking down at the box in Chan's hands. It was mid-morning, and, they were the first of the group for Chan and Christina-Elena to visit after the announcement of their engagement.

The box - a beautiful make of white velvet with an internal cushioning of cream-toned silk - with bright gold Russian script on the underside of the lid. It was a gold necklace, darkened with age mildly, with three tiny blue egss made of enamel with diamond-set lawrels attacking each of those little eggs to the dark gold necklace chain.

"So, Christine-Elena will wear that on the wedding day?" Seungkwan asked Chan. Chan nodded. "It's so, so lovely."

The bride-to-be of which was playing outside with the blue-heeler puppy. She had dirt and sticks in her silvery-blonde hair, and, she had light-pink lip balm smudged on her chin. The men watched her for a few moments through the windows on the south-side of the sitting room. She had on a embroidered linen sun-dress with spaghetti-straps, and, a button-up bodice with a sweetheart-neckline that had tiny paw-prints from the puppy across the fabric.

Tears pricked in Chan's eyes.

He was impossibly happy.

And, to Vernon and Seungkwan's eyes, Christine-Elena was impossibly happy.

-

"Whose going to tell Hannie that his baby is getting married?" Joshua wondered aloud the next morning.

"Not me." Seungcheol backed out immediately.

"Chan and Christine-Elena will tell him." Jihoon remarked over a mug of coffee.

They were talking to each other through the bedroom door - locked - mainly due to...ah..."last night".

Least of it all, Joshua was happy lying with Minghao and had no intention of getting up. It would have been a dificult task anyhow with Minghao's hands holding him securely in place.

Minghao nuzzled into the back right side of Joshua's neck. Joshua turned over to kiss Minghao.

"Answer us?" Seungcheol knocked sharply on the bedroom door.

"Get yourself out of Joshua's mouth!" Jihoon chipped in.

Minghao and Joshua simultaneously broke out of the kiss, laughing.

"You're giving me idea's, now!" Minghao called.

"Oh, come on!" Seungcheol groaned with emphasis.

"Come in and join us!" Minghao said. "I'm quite at me leisure."

Seungcheol howled while Jihoon nearly pissed himself laughing.

"Watch it, might say yes!" Jihoon exclaimed, drinking his coffee.

"My Mum always that a wedding sent everyone mental." Joshua said softly up to Minghao, for Minghao's ears only. "Mostly the best of them..."

Minghao tucked Joshua's body up close to his.

-

"I'm sorry, what did you just say?" Seungkwan gawped at Christine-Elena with Vernon and, admittedly, poor old Chan.

"Ja, ja, my Dad pay for youse to come to Iceland for wedding." Christine-Elena's bright smile wavered. "You won't come?"

"No, no, love." Vernon rushed in to assure her. "It's just that that's thirteen of us plus Chan's parents to pay for -"

"Oh, it's fine, Dad rich!" Christine-Elena exclaimed.

Seungkwan looked at Chan in a way that Chan in a way that exclaimed, "I don't think your woman understands."

"Cunts." Christine-Elena pointed at Chan and Seungkwan. Vernon burst out laughing. She had seen the men's shared look.

"Are you really sure about this?" Vernon checked with the Scandinavian woman.

She nodded confidently. The boys just had to take it with prayers.

-

"You said that you got a "bit" sunburnt." Seokmin and Soonyoung gawped through facetime at Junhui, who looked like a lobster with a Serbian nose and monolids.

"I think it's the camera." Junhui tried to get out of a lecture.

"We think it's not the camera." Seokmin and Soonyoung replied in union. 

Junhui squirmed uncomfortably. "Guys -"

"Our Grans both had cancer and most people in Australia die from cancer." Soonyoung told Junhui with an empasis on "die".

"I know, I know, I'm sorry -" Seokmin gestured to Junhui's face on the laptop screen.

Junhui took a deep sigh and told them.

He left out Thomasina.

As a consequence, Soonyoung and Seokmin went ballistic with loud chorus's.

"NUDE SUN-BATHING ON THE FUCKING ROOF?!" 

"Hm-mm, yes." Junhui nodded his head, confirming.

"ARE YOU INSANE?!" The boys screeched.

Junhui thought he had better not tell them ever about Thomasia getting him to finger her in the sea.

-

When Jeonghan waltzed back into Sylvia's house, he stopped to see Joshua in the studio with Minghao, talking.

"Junnie'll have to come back from Australia, right?" Joshua said to Minghao, the two o them not yet knowing about the plans on Christine-Elena and her families part for their - to put it in layman terms - "Northern Exposure".

"Not if he;s dating someone." Minghao shook his head. "Seperation = Seperation Anxiety. I went away with Sylvie once to the sea for a long weekend and when I came back Jun had lost five kilograms - it was only about four days."

Jeonghan's jaw dropped in the hall. He had never known about this before. And, to be honest, yes, indeed, he was a gossiping bitch.

"Why did you leave him behind?" Joshua asked, wondering if Minghao would do the same thing to him one day. 

Minghao's expression faltered. "I thought he'd be okay by himself." He told Joshua lowly. "And Superman's got nothing on you guysl I really thought that he'd be fine."

Joshua believe the clarity in Minghao's eyes.

Jeonghan watched the two of them stare at each other intently. An alien feeling invaded him.

Friends shouldn't date friends, he thought to himself, envy and un-easiness hurting his insides as Minghao and Joshua kissed.

It was so obvious - blindingly obvious - that the two of them were easy lovers. They were made for each other.

Completely and utterly.

Love.

It was love.

There was love.

Love - 

There was so much of it.

Undying.

Jeonghan knew that he should have made a sign ages ago, cleared his throat, called, done something.

But he just couldn't help but be transfixed by the bewitching sight before him. Never once had he thought of Joshua not being beautiful.

He always had been.

...

Always will be.

"Desire that will last forever..."

Jeonghan jolted.

Minghao had softly sung the line from the old Danish jazz song as he pulled his mouth off Joshua's, his eyes sliding dark and sensuous and pleased from Joshua's cheekbone to Jeonghan's startled eyes.

"Morning, you." Minghao grinned at Jeonghan, a arm sliding around Joshua's waist. "Let's start work, then."

"Uh...is she - is he staying?" Jeonghan looked too Joshua though speaking to Minghao.

"If he likes?" Minghao inquired with Joshua.

"Alright if I do?" Joshua asked.

My God, no, Jeonghan thought.

Minghao smiled. "Yes." He nodded.

"No!" Jeonghan exclaimed before getting control of himself. "I - uh - no, sorry, I -"

"It's ok, I'll go." Joshua held up his hands. He didn't seem put out. "See you later." He waved and left. Minghao's happy expression - thankfully - didn't leave with Joshua.

"What do you want to do today?" Minghao asked Jeonghan at the same time as Jeonghan did so of Minghao.

"Why are you asking me?" Jeonghan was surprised.

"Because I know that you've got it in you." Minghao came over to Jeonghan and put an arm around him. "Tell me anything that you want."

"Can I think for a while?" Jeonghan asked.

Minghao agreed.

-

"Help." Chan rang Minghao. Minghao went into the backgarden of Sylvia's home, walled on three sides by a eleven foot blue-stone fence covered in ivy and wisteria vinery with a beautiful undercover seating area on a small deck surrounded by lavender bushes buzzing with bumble-bees, the table and chairs carved of Welsh Pembroke-coastal beach-wood with a large black umbrella standing over the long rectangular table, large enough to sit twelve people easily.

"With what?" Minghao asked.

"i've just realized." Chan sounded ill.

"Realized what?" Minghao had all the patience in the whole wide world.

"It's going to be a proper pagan wedding."

"Oh, I see." Minghao nodded thought speaking to Chan on the phone instead of physically.

"You know about them?" Chan checked.

"Mm, a little bit." Minghao explained. "Russian Pagan Wedding's - yup - Welsh ones - a slight bit - Chinese, Korean, Thai, Japanese and Mongol I'm an expert on - but, right, Icelandic...I can't remember if Sylvie said they were their own race, or, came under the Norse, Scandinavian or Germanic racial categories."

"CAN WE FUCKING CHECK, SOMEHOW?!" Chan screeched.

Minghao laughed a lot after that statement. 

"Yeah, I'll asked Sylvia's old Druid." Minghao told Chan soothingly. "Don't worry, everything will be fine -"

"I'm really worried about the sex." Chan suddenly blurted.

Minghao paused. "Wait, when you say that, haven't you and Christine-Elena already -?"

"Pagan's do sex differently." Chan interrupted Minghao.

Even though he had already had it, Minghao's attention was now entirely devoted to Chan. Minghao got his cigarettes from the pocket of his jeans and lit one. Unbeknowest to him, Jeonghan's face peered at him from a window three stories above, thinking, searching.

And suddenly he had an idea.

The theory of capagnolia.

Cigarettes and sex.

"How do they do it differently?" Minghao asked Chan.

"It's a bit freaky." Chan warned Minghao.

Minghao beamed sensually. "Go on, Cara Mia." He purred.

Chan laughed. "Thanks, mate." He told Minghao at the end. "I feel a lot better."

It had been a hour and a half long conversation, but, it wasn't without relief for one and pleasure for the other.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Jeonghan was itching for Minghao to come back to work. So heavy his impatience become, that Jeonghan went down to the back garden.

He found Minghao asleep on the outdoor furniture, the umbrella, large and black, sheilded Minghao from the silvery-toned sunlight, peeking out from behind the clouds. He had a damo-seeming spot on the front of his jeans and a pleasantly blissful expression on his face. 

Jeonghan slapped Minghao across the face, waking him up.

Minghao was startled to say the least.

"Right, had an idea." Jeonghan told him straight away. "That jazz song you sang earlier and some cigarettes. Oh, and nice knickers."

-

Apart from Chan telling Minghao, Vernon and Seungkwan directly, and Joshua, seungcheol and Jihoon findout out in-directly, Chan's wedding plans weren't widely known.

But, once it hit Soonyoung and Seokmin - Seungkwan having been restrained by Vernon's common sense - it was all over the internet.

Jeonghan found out through their idiocy, unfortunately.

Jeonghan nearly choked on the lollipop he had been sucking for Minghao's photograph's as he checked his phone and found the voice message from Soonyoung.

"MY GOD, YOU ARE KIDDING ME?!" Jeonghan spluttered, dropping his phone as he took it away from his ear.

"Whose died?" Minghao automatically asked.

"WORSE!" Jeonghan was beyond horrified.

"What, what?!" Minghao began to panic in earnest.

"Channie's getting hitched to Chrissie."

Minghao grinned.

he knew that Jeonghan would kill him if he found out that Minghao and the some of the other's had known for a day or two before-hand.

-

"Oh, wow, look at you!" Vernon patted the head of he and Seungkwan's puppy gently as she managed to get upby herself on the three step wood block that Vernon had in the back garden; it was the skeleton beginnings of a deck-staircase, and, currently, a training device for curious puppies.

Seungkwan was sitting on a wooden crate, nursing a cup of tea while the barbeque sizzled away with salt and peppered mince for burgers and potatoes; everyone was coming around to their place that evening for a "bash". What it was actually was to talk about Chan's wedding, and, why he should/shouldn't marry Christine-Elena.

Absolute fucking interference, so to speak, in layman terms.

Joshua and Jeonghan were the first to arrive. "Cheollie's parking the car, Kwan." Joshua quickly said as Vernon turned the meat on the barbeque. Seungkwan's tea sat forgotten on the wooden crate all the while. Seungcheol was incredibly punctual; he hated it when people did not give similar courtesy. 

"Oh, I see." Seungkwan grinned. "You look well."

"Hao scrubbed him to death in the tub." Jeonghan added.

Seungkwan and Jeonghan burst out laughing.

The tops of Joshua's ears flushed.

A few moments later, Wonwoo and Mingyu came with Woosung.

They all looked.

There was something primal and protective about Woosung's being while Wonwoo was even quiter than usual...

In fact...

It looked like he had recently cried.

"Tell you all after." Woosung muttered as Mingyu took over keeping Wonwoo tucked into his side and both Joshua and Seungkwan went to ask what was going on.

Seungcheol appeared with two boxes of beer.

"Vernon!" He immediately shouted.

Vernon beamed brightly. He held up a piece of grilled and buttered bread from the barbeque with his tongs. "GOT A PIECE OF TOAST WITH YOUR NAME ON IT COMING YOUR WAY, MATE!"

Jeonghan saw Wonwoo smile. He also saw Woosung's tightly-strung-up heart loosen, completely and utterly.

Good, he thought.

He didn't even remember to have anxiety over Neve come to Vernon and Seungkwan's

Jeonghan knew he had promised himself that he'd keep Neve seperate, but, he couldn't help himself. 

Something was changing.

It was July now.

So maybe it was the summer.

Who knew?

"Han, what's the matter?" Jeonghan looked around to see Seungcheol beside him with his gifted toast.

"Yeah - oh, nothing!" Jeonghan answered.

"Oh." Seungcheol smiled softly. He gestured to Jeonghan's face. "Clouds came over the sun just then."

Jeonghan's mouth twisted into a touched, crooked smile. "I think that's the sweest thing you've ever said to me." Jeonghan put an arm around Seungcheol's shoulders.

"You smell nice."

"So do you."

The two men chuckled.

"You know, he's coming around tonight."

"Who?"

"The boyfriend."

"Oh, I see."

"Yeah?"

"But you should have told me before-hand; should have brought my Macho title with me."

Jeonghan laughed. "You'd never!"

Seungcheol grinned sheepishly.

"Yeah, concede that." Seungcheol mumbled.

"He's special." Jeonghan laid a hand on Seungcheol's chest. "He's perfect, Cheol."

Next thing the world knew, the greeting cries of BooSeokSoon screeched into the air.

"BOO!"

"KWANNIE!"

"FELLA'S!"

"GIVE US A KISS!"

"Oh, for fuck's sake..." Vernon mumbled, hiding his face in his hands.

Woosung had the mature grace - thankfully - to cope with it all, take it all in his stride.

"Whose not here?" Vernon muttered to himself, trying to check everyone over.

Seungcheol, Jeonghan, Joshua, Mingyu, Wonwoo, Woosung, Seokmin and Soonyoung were there...

Which left Minghao, Chan, Christine-Elena, and, Jihoon not present.

"Where the cock are they?" Vernon said to himself.

-

Jihoon laughed with Christine-Elena. He was waiting in the back seat of her 1940's Beauic - Chan turned quite the gentleman in her company and always insisted on driving his lady - while the man himself and Minghao raided a off-liscence.

Jihoon had never thought it possibly to bop along in the back seat of a vintage car with a Scandinavian Pagan woman to hip-hop.

"This is fun, honey!" Christine-Elena exclaimed.

"Ja!" Jihoon tried to speak her language. "Heil Hitler."

Oh, fuck, went through Jihoon's head a moment later.

Luckily, Christine-Elena laughed.

"Fuck gay Hitler arse cunt!" She shouted.

She and Jihoon continued to wriggle around in the back seat of the Beauic.

-

"Why's the beauic rocking so much?" The son of the owner of the off-liscence asked Chan and Minghao, curious at first, then, a embarrassed flush filling his face.

Instead of letting Chan handle it, Minghao jumped in.

He smiled warmly and sensually at the man, mildly spotty and gangly, in his late teens, and, Minghao tweaked his Lennon glasses.

"You can always join." Minghao purred softly before turning on his heel and leaving, giving the man one last flance over his shoulder before he went.

Chan had no choice but to scramble helplessly after Minghao. 

"You son of a bitch!" Chan swore as they got back into the Beauic, shouting over the music. "I got in there all the fucking time!"

Minghao had not a single ounce of shame.

inally, everyone was at the party.

Christine-Elena was happily carrying Chan upon her shoulders, and, they all knew that if Chan wasn't so in love with her that he'd be very embarrassed indeed. 

Seungcheol finally got to have that chat with Woosung, but, Woosung, with time, knew that he wouldn't be able to tell Seungcheol anything without resulting in Seungcheol being collateral damage to the whole affair. There was no way that Seungcheol couldn't possibly be hurt by the blatant truth. 

"Woo's former boss put him through a very difficult time." Woosung swept close to the edge of the hard truth, not wanting to lie to Seungcheol. "It's absolutely criminal. I'm sorting it out. It took a great deal out of him. Look, I can't really tell you so I never told you, do you understand? And, please, mate, don't go spreading it around?"

Seungcheol nodded. "Oh course." He nodded his head frankly to the older man.

"Wonwoo's Mum was first diagnosed with cervical cancer when she was twenty-one, and, then again at thirty-seven." Woosung explained. "She got through it both times, but, she's turned fifty this year and at her pap smear it's come up that she has irregular antibodies. She and Woo's Dad rang up last night to have a chat with him about it because, if she does have cancer again, it is serious. Third time may not be lucky, you see, mate? You can keep this quiet, right? I don't want him to feel cornered or that I betrayed him, but, I don't want you kids worrying either, yeah?"

Seungcheol nodded. "Of course." He said.

"And they are just antibodies." Woosung's mouth pinched slightly. "Hopefully it won't be anything."

"Does she uh - his Mum, I mean - does she have to have more tests -?" Seungcheol faltered on his question, rubbing the back of his neck.

"That's another reason why he's quiet." Woosung sighed. "They did a test three days ago, didn't ring Mrs. Jeon, then, the stupid young Doctors - barely out of shitty nappies - have accused her of ignorance in the form of not responding even though it was later found by the senior staff at the women's hospital that Mrs. Jeon was never contacted in the first place."

"Oh, typical!" Seungcheol scoffed. 

"That's what I said." Woosung remarked. "Anyhow, they'll have her back in tomorrow for blood tests."

"Uh, Woosung, can I ask you something?" Seungcheol quipped.

"Yeah, course." Woosung smiled.

"Sorry, I don't really know what's happening - where's Wonwoo now with his job?"

Woosung grinned. "With me, mate."

Seungcheol sighed softly and put his beer down. "Thank fuck." He said with emphasis, raising happy fists into the air. Woosung burst out laughing then put an arm around his shoulders, rubbing his upper arm for a moment.

"Legend, boy." Woosung told Seungcheol happily. 

Joshua's jaw dropped open at the sight of Christine-Elena; Vernon had just started to dish out lamp chops, and, crouching down on the ground on a picnic blanket on the lawn, Christine-Elena had seized the palm-sized hunk of meat in her teeth like an animal, ripped it clean off the boat, and was now chewing the delightfully pink meat like a cow chewed it's cut, a cooked bone in hand that, after devouring the meat, she began - she started to eat the bloody bone!

Joshua told Minghao and he just laughed. "Sylvie used to do that." He explained. "It was a trick in a Chinese retaurant to order a plate of ribs, and, then, when the waitress came for the plate of bones, there be no bones there."

"Oh my fucking G - you're insane!" Joshua shook his head. "You're mad, all of you."

Minghao shrugged. "See you in a minute, got to see Mingyu."

Mingyu watched Wonwoo in amazement. Wonwoo had this thing where he hated beer, but, he liked it - and only liked it - if it was cold enough to hurt, and, had raspberry lemonade mixed in with it. Yes, raspberry lemonade in beer. "Try some, it's nice!" Wonwoo insisted.

"Oh, mate, I dunno -" Mingyu hesitated.

"Tiny bit won't poison you." Wonwoo glowed. Whatever shyness he seemed to have earlier had gone, but, then again, maybe the beer and raspberry lemonade had relaxed him a bit. Wonwoo's insides were a funny set of things. Wonwoo smoked occasionally - at a wedding or a funeral or something of that sort - and, well, it didn't do anything to them whereas Minghao, Junhui and the other's would become conversational and nicer to be around. But, then, this sort of concotion -

"She wore a raspberry beret

Like the kind you find in a second-hand store..." Mingyu sung softly in English as he rose the beer to his lips. Wonwoo grinned.

"I don't know this." Wonwoo said in English as well.

Mingyu repeated the lyrics in Korean.

"Lemonade, not beret." Wonwoo pointed at the bottle.

"Gyu!"

Minghao waved as he came over. 

"Nice to see you." Wonwoo said as Minghao came and sat between he and Mingyu on old wooden crates by the fence. "Oh, too, warning, Chrissie's done something very bad."

"Why you say that?" Minghao and Mingyu looked at him.

"I spotted the album covers of ABBA earlier."

The men grinned. "Hey, isn't that how they met?" Mingyu quipped.

Wonwoo nodded. 

"Oh no." Minghao thumbed the side of his nose. They laughed.

"So, sorry, just to check, they actually are, you know...?" Wonwoo pointed over to Christine-Elena and Chan before disguising the gesture by rubbing behind his ear.

Minghao nodded. "Chan was just about beside himself with happiness when he called me up."

"Oh." Mingyu looked pleased. "Soonyoung's going to be have to be the bridesmaid, hadn't he?"

Minghao snorted a laugh as he went to drink some of the red wine he'd bought, straight from the bottle. "Oh, God, don't even suggest it." Minghao warned him. "I'll have to punish you."

"Don't you even think about it." Wonwoo raised his eyebrows. He smiled as he held a bottle of beer before Minghao expectantly. Mingyu got a bad case of the giggles as Wonwoo gazed insistently, unwaveringly, at Minghao. Minghao took a sip, not sure if Wonwoo was on the edge of a breakdown. He prepared himself to want to throw up at the taste in his mouth, but, astonishingly, it was nice.

"Oh, wow, that's incredible." Minghao was in a state of shock. He peered into the bottle. "Who bought this, it tastes great!"

Mingyu's jaw dropped open. Wonwoo smiled triumphantly.

"Told you so." He remarked to Mingyu. "Seungcheol bought it and then I put raspberry lemonade in it." He explained to Minghao.

"Wanna swap?" Minghao moved the wine bottle and the beer bottle back and forth.

"No." Wonwoo said simply, and took captive hold of his drink back.

"Oh, give him it, I'll make you one, you trust me?" Mingyu put a hand on Wonwoo's back.

"You don't know how I like it." Wonwoo stuck his nose up.

"Better tell him, then, darling." Minghao pinched the beer bottle back. Mingyu burst out laughing at the indignant expression on Wonwoo's sharp, fox-like features. 

"Oh, alright." Wonwoo agreed huffily. 

Then, it started.

"YOU ARE THE DANCING QUEEN

YOUNG AND SWEET

ONLY SEVENTEEN

DANCING QUEEN

FEEL THE BEAT FROM THE TAMBOURINE

YOU CAN DANCE

YOU CAN JIVE

HAVING THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE

OOO

SEE THAT GIRL

WATCH THAT SCENE

DIGGING THE DANCING QUEEN!"

A extroadinairly handsome man with breathtaking physique and curling black hair and glasses came into the back garden, having climbed over a fence, just as Soonyoung, Seungkwan, Jeonghan, Vernon, Chan, Christine-Elena, Joshua - dragged up by Jeonghan - and Jihoon danced on a patch on lawn to ABBA, singing along too, with the Icelandic's woman the most powerful of the lot, all the while, Seokmin and Seungcheol filmed the display before them. 

"Who is that?" Wonwoo asked of the lovely man.

"Sorry, Joshy, you're getting dumped, sweetheart." Minghao murmured to himself.

"Prick." Wonwoo told him.

"I don't actually mean it." Minghao, nonetheless, couldn't help the dizzy and bright smile making his smile crooked and his eyes glow. The man was a testicular Aphrodite.

And, yes, that is a actual phrase, thank you very much.

Minghao and Wonwoo's eyes slid together, watching the man lean against the side of the house, dark eyes observing everything before him. They could tell that he felt like he was intruding on something that should be given the greatest privacy, for, before him was a spectacle that would become a story that could never be told.

"He's here for someone, right? Maybe he works with Vernon -" Minghao began but Wonwoo's educated sense cut him off.

"Don't be stupid." Wonwoo said. "Look at who he's looking at."

Minghao suddenly hated the sight before him. The gorgeous man had a look of deep, tender love in his eyes, and, he was looking at someone in that group. Inside his chest already rang out the answer, sharp and bright. He knew it.

"Jeonghan." Minghao deadpanned simply. He sculled the rest of the raspberry lemonade beer and then started on the red wine. Minghao knew that it made no sense at all; he was happy with Joshua - stunning as ever and unchanging - perfectly happy with him.

It's the time of year, Sylvia's voice whispered within him. Or does something about him just remind you of me?

Something Minghao felt there was a monster in him, two horns growing out of his head, but, he loved it. He knew that Sylvia had always felt the same about herself, as well.

"We'll be two monsters together." She had once told him, kissing his cheek sweetly and then dragging him down the middle of a Seoul inner-city street in the rain to show him something cute she had seen in the shop window of a place that sold baby-related things. 

"NEVE!" Jeonghan suddenly shouted. "SHUT UP THE MUSIC!"

Laughter filled the air, and, ABBA was turned down to a quieter level. 

Jeonghan grinned broadly, his heart floating, and he went over to Neve who immediately gave him a cuddle.

"I'm so sorry, I got lost." Neve said. "I had to pop into a bar and ask the bouncer how I got here."

"Oh, yeah, you know that arrow sign that points which side of the cul de sac is lived in and the other that is all heritage listed?" Jeonghan said and Neve nodded. "The kids in the area spin that sign around for fun all the time; if you look tomorrow it'll point to the himalayas or something."

Neve grinned. "Very cold there, apparently, and all the people speak funny." He told Jeonghan.

"Hm, yes, I've heard that myself." Jeonghan nodded wisely. 

The air was broken by the sound of a massive fart. 

"VERNON!" At least five of their friends howled. Chan hurriedly picked up a tea-towel from the barbeque and fanned it in the direction of Vernon sitting on a chair by the barbeque so the scent didn't waft over to his precious lady, and, next thing, Seungcheol was screeching about the dreadful wift getting into the barbeque coals. 

Vernon laughed himself breathless, and, Seungkwan, who was used to Vernon's gastronomic displays that could rival the cape-canaveral lift-off, nearly died laughing too. 

"Do it again, please!" Seungkwan called. 

"YOU BASTARD!" They all shouted as Vernon cocked a leg up in the air. 

"I like your friends." Neve told Jeonghan, looking down as the slightly smaller man tried to vanish inside his jacket, tucking himself in there as much as he could. 

"Thank God there's no kids around, they'd be taken away by social services." Jeonghan mumbled against Neve's chest. He looked up to Neve with a smile. "Now, beautiful man..." Jeonghan stepped away and held out his hands. "Would you dance with me?"

By the time order was returned - sort of - the phonograph was now playing Mamma Mia, and, everyone was dancing. 

Unbeknowest to them, on the other side of the world, Junhui was booking plane tickets.

Seokmin had rang him earlier and told him about Chan getting married, and, if Chan was getting married, he wanted to be there. He couldn't not go, could he?


	47. FORTY-SEVEN

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Junhui comes back to Korea from Australia for Chan's, and, Chan talks about the wedding with their whole group. Wonwoo finds out whether his Mother has cancer again, and, Jeonghan soon learns something he didn't know about Neve's nature as they all head to Denmark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally got this chapter finished tonight! Bloody brilliant, luvvy XD And we've got a new one on the same night as well, bloody legend!

"Ugh, my head." Seungcheol winced as he touched his temple, and, then found that for some reason, he was wearing Wonwoo's glasses.

...

Why?

It was amazing he hadn't broken them in the middle of the night and got some glass in his eye.

In the kitchen, Chan and Jeonghan talked. Jeonghan had given him a lecture on marriage and commitment and all that the brand new world that Chan was going to step in to contained, with all the bad bits included. 

"I'm still marrying her, there's nothing you can say about it." Chan told Jeonghan after the hour long discussion as he filled up the kettle in the sink to make a soup-mug of tea with lashings of sugar in it, trying to wake himself up.

"Oh, yeah?" Jeonghan raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah." Chan put the kettle on to boil.

"You do understand that she's mad enough to be put in an institution?" Jeonghan said of Christine-Elena.

"Yes, and I love her for it." Chan crossed his arms defiantly.

Jeonghan sighed.

"You know, she adores you right?" Chan told him.

"What? Why?" Jeonghan stared at the young man.

"For always taking care of me." Chan smiled. "She's not a bad person. Mental, yes, I agree with that, but, she's a really, really nice lady. And she cries easy, you know."

"No way." Jeonghan said incredulously.

"Yeah, way." Chan nodded, his smile getting wider. Jeonghan sighed again, his lips closed and his eyes on Chan, more of a smoker's exhale than a sigh, really.

"Oh, alright." Jeonghan remarked gently.

"Love you, hyung." Chan hugged Jeonghan.

"Don't let her hear that." Jeonghan said of Chan's wife-to-be, rubbing his back.

"Yup, understand that." Chan nodded as he pulled away before stamping his foot and saluting Jeonghan.

Jeonghan snorted a laugh, his nose scrunching up as he did the same back to Chan.

"Is it just me or is the whole world getting - feeling - nicer, lately?" Chan said later as he and Jeonghan sat at the kitchen table with their huge mugs of tea. 

"You're in love." Jeonghan smiled.

"Too, hyung, there's something I need to talk to you about." Chan told Jeonghan about Christine-Elena and her family's plans for the wedding.

"All of us to Europe?!" Jeonghan squawked. "You're kidding me."

Chan shook his head. "And she wants to have it done by next Friday so then we have time to be in Europe and then organize the wedding."

Jeonghan's tea nearly dribbled it's way out of his mouth as he went into a state of shock.

"Oh my God - MINGHAO, WAKE UP!" Jeonghan shrieked. "ALL OF YOU - WAKE UP!"

For the next half an hour it was chaos; Christine-Elena picked up poor Chan and ran out of the house with him - Jeonghan's shrieking had made her think there was a gas leak or a fire - and Vernon and Seungkwan were ready to kill Jeonghan as they tried to calm everyone down before the neighbours rang the police about the noise.

In the midst of it all, the dumb-feeling Jeonghan realized something.

Neve wasn't around. He wasn't at the house or -

Jeonghan couldn't even remember what had happened late last night, as in, he couldn't remember if he got Neve into a cab for his work the next day or if he was tucked up somewhere in Vernon and Seungkwan's home for a little while before making his own way...

Jeonghan knew deep inside that something was wrong, but, there wasn't the space to give attention to that thought.

Vernon grumbled, breaking up pieces of Old Gold rum and raisin chocolate and Whittaker's almond blend into a bowl as everyone groaned and swallowed copious amounts of anti-nausea medication and headache tablets. With the chocolate, a small mountain of buttered toast was put on the table in a roasting dish, and, soon, the air was thick with morning cigarette smoke thanks to Vernon, Minghao, Wonwoo, Woosung, and Jihoon. 

"Yuck." Joshua scowled over it. Jihoon blew a lungful directly in his face.

It made most of them giggle.

"Stop hogging the choccy." Seungkwan gently chided Vernon, the man's hand permanently in the bowl of chocolate. "Have some toast."

"Can I pinch the fudge?" Soonyoung's voice called from the sitting room. 

"Don't you dare, that's for when my Mum comes around!" Seungkwan put a stop to that. "She has it with her coffee, sacred property."

Vernon smiled at Seungkwan. "Aw."

Seungkwan biffed him lightly in the nose.

"That's my girl." Minghao cooed.

Everyone chuckled as Seungkwan went puce in the face.

"Prick." Seungkwan energetically flipped the v's to Minghao. 

Thanks to Christine-Elena and her record stash from the night before, Soonyoung and Seokmin got either side of Seungkwan, Seokmin by elbowing Vernon.

"Bitch." Vernon scowled.

"Chiquita, tell me what's wrong..." Soonyoung and Seokmin sang.

"You're enchained by your own sorrow -"

"Oh, for fuck's sake!" Jeonghan moaned, covering his eyes.

"In your eyes there is no hope for tomorrow -"

"And that goes for you two, too." Wonwoo - without his glasses - gestured vaguely to the blurry smudges of Seokmin and Soonyoung.

"How I hate to see you like this

There is no way you can deny it

I can see that you're oh so sad, so quiet -"

"Guys..." Seungkwan held up his hands. "We must at once devour the chocolate..."

"PLEASE DO BE FUCKING QUIET!" 

Everyone in the kitchen nearly shat themselves out of fright. Christine-Elena had just roared like a buffalo. Chan came into the kitchen with a huge dark-red lipstick kiss mark on his cheek.

Seungcheol smiled down into his coffee.

"Sorry, mate, she's talking to her Dad on the phone." Chan explained bashfully. "Something to do with her Grandmother trying to kill someone on a moped."

"Sounds like a lovely woman." Mingyu offered up a remark to break the silence.

"Sorry, that was awkward." Chan apologised. "And, uh, sorry, but, has anyone got any idea about what we're doing right now?"

And, if the truth was told, no one could answer him.

-

Soon enough, it was next Friday, and, even the lead-up to that week had been chaotic enough.

Beginning on Monday. 

"JUNNIE!"

Minghao was woken up by Joshua's shrieks.

Junhui had still had the spare key - one of many in the full and honest truth - and he had come right in with his suitcases into the sitting room to see Joshua wandering about in his pyjamas with the morning telly playing on a low volume and trying the method of making coffee in a sauce-pan on the stove. 

"Shh, shh, shh!" Junhui had immediately rushed over and had half-smothered Joshua in a well-meaning hug, patting his hair down. "Don't get scared, shh, please, fuck's sake, don't wake up Hao-Hao, you know how the bitch can be...!"

By this point in time, Joshua was quite over his shock and at his leisure, grinning into Junhui's neck. "What are you even -"

"Channie's getting married, and we can't let him get away scot-free." Junhui explained. "Come on, of course we have to cause a problem."

Joshua coughed into his elbow, the air taken out of his lungs. "Oh my God..." He chuckled silently. "Australia's done you good, you're glowing."

"I've had fun." Junhui assured him. "It's nothing like most people think. Got some stuff to tell you, if you like?"

"Come with me, I'm still listening." Joshua got up from the couch and went into the kitchen, beckoning behind his back for Junhui, and, so Junhui did follow him. 

Junhui talked for a long time about Australia. "Oh, and they're manic about mosquitoes, or, rather, "mozzies" as they call them." Junhui told Joshua who couldn't stop laughing. "Fuck, they go fucking crazy with the agent-orange Mortein insecicide spray. Dad will hang the babies by their nappies on a clothesline and spray them down with it before chasing Mum down the street whose shrieking at him "You fuckin' wog, Razzo!" - which is how they all talk."

"Josh, who've you got down there?" Minghao came down the stairs.

He nearly fainted on the spot.

A sun-kissed and evidently happy Junhui met his eyes.

Then there was Tuesday.

Everyone else found out that Junhui had come back from land of AC/DC and the neapoli-tan - "It's when Australian men begin to get tanned in the sun adn their shirt sleeves get shorter." Junhui had explained. "Longs-sleeved -" He getsured to his elbow. "Is brown, so, chocolate, then, short sleeve -" He gestured to the middle of his upper arm. "Is pink, so, strawberry, and, then, no sleeves - tank tops - which is white so vanilla...for a time being anyway but it's usually blue because they all have tatts." - and, it was chaos. 

A happy chaos, though.

"Oh, no, I can't be getting drunk again, I only did it on Sunday." Jeonghan groaned when Junhui himself rang him up. "I'm so happy you're back, mate, but, oh, no, all of us are going to have to have lemonade and ginger beer or something, fucking hell, I've only just stopped retching this morning..."

"That doesn't matter, Han." Junhui said. "You don't need to go all out - no, no, it's alright, we don't have to do any of that."

"It's not like we don't care, Junnie, no, of course we do, it's just that we went mental at Vernon and Seungkwan's on Sunday..." Jeonghan went on to explain what happened. 

"Oh, my Mum loves ABBA." Junhui laughed.

"I can't get SOS out of my bloody head." Jeonghan grumbled. 

"So when you hear me darling -" Junhui began to sing but Jeonghan shut him up.

That night, everyone came around to Minghao and Joshua's. 

Junhui couldn't help but notice how the house had changed around since he had left. All the furniture in the sitting room was changed, there were new lamps and books, films and cd's. Junhui couldn't help but give into a internal desire to look in other places. The kitchen, now he came to notice, was all different as well. The kettle was new; a cheerful bright red one gazed at him where a plain silver one had been for positively years. Junhui wondered if Minghao's bedroom had changed. Suddenly, he was hit with the memory of Sylvia's Mother's ashes been smashed from their urn onto the carpet. Christ, how had that turned out? Junhui personally thought that even after Mingyu had worked his domestic magic with the vacumn cleaner, the remains of the deceased woman would still have to be around.

"Hey, you." He hugged Christine-Elena as he saw her. She whistled through the gap between her front teeth. "How's my favourite Danish girl?"

"She is happy, Junnie." The young woman smiled. "Chan is outside with the motorcycle."

"You like the KTM?" Junhui asked her.

"Ja, so sexy, man." Christine-Elena's nose scrunched up. "Australia change you." Her fingertips stroked his cheek.

Look at how effortlessly you've come in and replaced Sylvia, went thought Junhui's mind. He simply couldn't help the thought. All of them had gotten used to the new woman in their world; and a new woman in their world she was. They weren't going to get less closer to Chan even after he married her; things were going to stay just the same. They had always been like a very small tribe; it was special. 

"I've had a very nice time." Junhui told her truthfully.

"You stay forever now, please?" Christine-Elena's hand curved over the shape of Junhui's cheekbone.

"You're one special lady." Junhui laughed, shocked by what she said. "Oh, you're cool."

"Let's go find my husband man," She put her arm through his. "Have you ever ride on the bike? It would be so fun, Junnie."

Then it was Wednesday. 

It was confirmed. The Northern wedding was booked, the Druids and Bards were organized, and, more importantly, the plane tickets for Denmark were booked for all of them, and, all of them were checking passports and getting ready to pack for luggage. It was the first time any of them - bar Minghao - bad been to that section of the world, and, it was exciting enough to be apart of a wedding, but, Denmark was another thing altogether. 

"Is it just me or does this wedding feel different to Maddie and Hoonie's wedding?" Seungcheol commented to Joshua and Jeonghan as they organized their apartment ahead of the traveling. 

"Yeah, of course it feels different." Jeonghan said. "It is different."

"Yeah, their wedding had all the Maori stuff and now this wedding is going to have all the Danish stuff." Joshua agreed.

Joshua, the previous evening, had had a long talk with Christine-Elena and Chan.

"I'm so sorry, guys, but, I just can't be at the ceremony with all the pagan stuff, I'm sorry, I just can't." Joshua had told his friends.

"It's ok, my Dad would kill you anyway." Christine-Elena had dismissed. "But you come to eat our food - have some drink, have some meat, dance with us? You know me as the lady has to dance with all my man's friends, you know?"

Joshua had been able to say yes to that.

He could already feel the guilt in him, but, he just turned to stone and ice at the mere thought of any other case. 

It was an impossibility for him. 

"What are you going to wear?" One half of Jeonghan's mouth turned up in a grin that showed his teeth a little.

"I don't think I'd get blamed if you couldn't see the suit for a quadruple layer fur coat?" Joshua remarked as his answer. "It's summer in Denmark, it'll still be cold. It's not the South of France."

"Which is a different climate?"

"Yeah, because it's closer to spain." Joshua nodded on as though it explained everything. "And what are you wearing?"

Jeonghan whistled softly.

"Oh, no." Joshua said.

"No, don't be like that!" Jeonghan exclaimed. "It's going to be so much fun, I've never been to a Pagan wedding." He beamed.

Joshua's stomach swirled uneasily. Jeonghan didn't seem to be aware that he wasn't exactly going to be entirely there.

Don't tell him, a voice in the back of Joshua's head whispered in advice.

"Han?" Joshua tried.

"Yeah, bae?"

That stopped Joshua in his tracks.

"BAE?!" Joshua squawked.

"Oh, shit, sorry." Jeonghan waved a hand dismissevly. "Hao got that off Sylvia and I've got it off him, sorry."

"Yes, well..." Joshua bristled.

"Oh, shut up." Jeonghan smiled nurturingly. "Like you've got a pole up your arse."

Joshua's attention got caught by how pretty Jeonghan's mouth looked as his lips moved to the words, "Like you've got a pole up your arse.".

"I, uh -" Joshua stumbled on his words.

"You need more underwear." Jeonghan peered into Joshua's suitcase. 

Joshua peered into Jeonghan's suitcase in retaliation. "And I thought it would be full of two bits of string with a zig-zag stitch through them."

"You know what a zig-zag stitch is?" Jeonghan raised his eyebrow.

"Maggot." Joshua was now embarrassed.

"Germ." Jeonghan cooed before stroking Joshua's hair back from his face.

"You're a walking STD." Joshua snapped.

Jeonghan burst out laughing. "Hm." He wrapped his arms around Joshua's waist and rested his head on Joshua's shoulder. Joshua wriggled trying to throw Jeonghan off, but, before he knew it, Jeonghan had clawed his gentlemanly bits from behind, slipping a hand between his legs, and had pushed him down onto the bed, just missing going into either one of the two suitcases. Jeonghan straddled his lower back and absolutely took the piss out of him.

"Woah, Nelly, woah, slow down horsey!" Jeonghan burst out laughing as he bent down over Joshua, stroking his fingers through Joshua's hair, his lips and nose bumping up against Joshua's scalp.

"I hate you." Joshua's voice was muffled by being face-planted into the duvet.

"I know, it's ok." Jeonghan climbed off Joshua and rubbed the top of his spine before Joshua eased himself up. Jeonghan nearly cackled. Joshua's nose was sort of a musky red in tone and very squidgy looking.

"Oh, no, let me see." Jeonghan giggled, his fingertips gently touching Joshua's nose. Joshua frowned, but, he was so cute. "Christ, get the hot flannels, we'll have to mould it back into shape, mate, jeez..." Jeonghan couldn't help laughing more.

Then came Thursday.

"Whose going to look after you?" Vernon looked at he and Seungkwan's puppy.

"Can Daewon do it?" Seungkwan asked as he washed dishes.

"New baby in the house." Vernon explained.

"Bugger." Seungkwan scrubbed vigoriously at a saucepan with a chux sponge.

"What about your Mum and Dad?" Vernon checked.

"For a few nights but not a few weeks." Seungkwan answered mournfully.

"Fuck, so what do we do?" Vernon was suddenly quite nervous.

"She's not going in a kennel." Seungkwan deadpanned.

"Oh course not, she's never going into one of them." Vernon agreed.

Both Vernon and Seungkwan thought seriously, Seungkwan stroking his chin as Vernon stroked behind the puppy's ears, holding her in one hand, tucked up against his ribs. 

"And we're fucked." Vernon finally announced.

He and Seungkwan hadn't been able to think of a single thing.

Wonwoo was by himself in Woosung's private office space when the call came through.

"Hi, darling?" His Mother's voice said.

"Hey, Mum, sorry, give me one sec." Wonwoo got up from his desk and knocked on the door to Woosung's study. 

It was a similar set-up to the office space Wonwoo had had at his old work, and, Wonwoo was glad of it. He liked the setting of he being near Woosung and Woosung being near him but with a degree of seperation between the two of them throughout the working day. 

Woosung poked his head in. It's Mum, he mouthed.

"Oh, no worries." Woosung whispered, dismissing Wonwoo with a wave of his hand. Wonwoo jogged down the hall to the elevators and climbed into one all by himself that headed to the ground floor of Woosung's skyscraper.

The mere thought of that alone swayed Wonwoo's mind for a moment.

He would never forget the first sight of Woosung's work, his property, his empire, let alone the first day. Wonwoo smiled to himself. He hadn't had sex with Woosung on his desk or had champagne instead of a cup of tea for breakfast that morning.

Woosung had showed him to his office, shown him the waiting room, the accompanying bathrooms and the small kitchen - "I'll have to tell Mingyu." Wonwoo grinned at the sight of it, small, but incredibly and perfectly functional - and then had let him get settled at his desk.

Woosung's office was one he designed himself. He had decided on everything from the carpets, the furniture, the IT, the books on their shelves, to the wall-mounted television and how there was a radio on Wonwoo's desk that always had to be on the BBC World Service. It was little details like that that made Wonwoo laugh; the office was one of curiously home-like assurity and comfort, not all glass and black and white tones of Neo-Scandinavian Modernist design. 

Wonwoo had done that day what his job was to do; type, make phone calls and appointments, write emails, ignore some phone calls, account for the character's of any clients that walked through the door so Woosung knew whether or not to be kindly in manner or colder, and, so the day had gone.

Wonwoo sat down in the courtyard garden where other employee's in the building - some eight hundred - were taking their lunch, or, relaxing on the grass with their skirts and trousers hitched up, asorbing the sunshine. 

Wonwoo wished that he smoked all of a sudden. 

Wished he could pinch one of Minghao's cigarettes.

"I'm not sick again, love." Wonwoo's Mother told him. "It's just me ovaries being as they are after having it twice before. It's all ok, love. Live to fight another day."

Wonwoo smiled. He briefly pressed his hand over his mouth. "Good." He said simply, quietly. "Good, Mum."

-

And then there was departure day, Friday.

They all had to be at the airport at a pleasant half-ten in the morning, and, that fact that no one had to be up at the crack of dawn was an utter source of delight.

Seungkwan giggled at the sight of Chan's parents. Chan's Mother was a little on the tall side and Chan's Father was a little on the short size.

But both were picked up off the ground with their feet dangling in the air when Christine-Elena wrapped her arms around each of their necks and gave them a proper cuddle. 

"They're probably terrified of what the grandchildren will turn out like." Mingyu came over to Junhui and pointed. Junhui grinned. 

Vernon and Seungkwan had got their next door neighbour to be able to look after their puppy, and, Seungcheol found out from Woosung about Wonwoo's Mother not having cancer again.

"Thought he looked happy." Seungcheol whispered up to the older man.

"And there's a wedding as well." The handsome man winked. "Weddings always do people the world of good."

Everyone tried not to openly giggle as Chan checked on his Mother after she was half squashed by Christine-Elena. The older woman grumbled furiously and slapped her son's arm; Woosung excused himself from Seungcheol and went to provide easy British grace. Seungcheol had to duck his head to hide his grin.

It worked instaneously.

"You." Joshua thumbed at the elbow of Jeonghan's jacket. Jeonghan looked on the edge of fornlorness.

Jeonghan glanced at him.

"Tell me?" Joshua tried.

"I asked Neve to come but he didn't want to." Jeonghan eventually answered after a long silence, having been wondering whether or not to tell Joshua. "Said that it wasn't his scene, even when we're together for a few years. It's not his place to be coming into the stuff to do with my friends and that I should expect the same distance with any of his stuff. He says if we're going to be together that he wants it private, simple, distanced." Jeonghan sighed heavily, tilting his head back to the terminal ceiling, shaking his hair back. It was still silvery-toned but with a bit of black root, and pulled into a bun at the base of his neck with pretty strands coming away at occasional spots. "I know I'm being unreasonable, but, I don't really like the thought of spending a couple of weeks without him."

"I know." Joshua slipped his arm through Jeonghan's and held onto him tightly.

Jeonghan looked down at his legs. He was wearing jeans and converse sneakers, and, he suddenly wished that he was in one of the skirts from Sylvia's washed-out Danish wardrobe; the jeans felt uncomfortable, too close to his skin, hot, not enough room to move or breathe, so clinging.

Jeonghan tightly closed his eyes to try and get rid of the feeling.

Joshua's arms became tighter in his.

"Oh, no, I'm alright." Jeonghan softly chuckled, his other hand coming up to touch Joshua's arm through his.

"No, you're not." Joshua murmured.

Something in Jeonghan came to a slow pause. Did he just say what I think he did? Jeonghan heard his own voice murmur in the back of his mind.

"How - how do you know that?" Jeonghan said. 

No, no, don't say that! His consience urged him, shouting him, waving it's hands. The mind was Tae-ri in being, then Sylvia, then Christine-Elena. Jeonghan nearly wobbled. Don't tell him that!

And it came from the place that knew better.

The part that desired Neve, wanted Neve, needed Neve, couldn't be without Neve. Didn't want to be without Neve and his beauty; didn't want to be without Neve and his beautiful smile and his hands.

Jeonghan didn't want to end this world, no matter what his stupid body and his stupid mind and his stupid weakness in his opinion made him do. Most of the things he created and wrecked in his life were due to his stupid body and stupid mind and stupid weakness. He couldn't keep a hold of anything.

He could never do with it coming to an end.

He could never say goodbye.

Joshua's lips graced over his cheekbone. "Han?" He murmured into Jeonghan's ear.

Around them, their friends and their brides and their lovers and their families formed a barrier from the rest of the world that would photograph them, aestheticise them, attack them, spit at them, loathe them, feel the fire in their veins and their abdomens over them.

Because he can always tell, Jeonghan's consience murmured of Joshua. Remember the times when you used to look at him and just know that one day that that man was going to be all of your world? That someday that man was going to be your wife -

The sentence broke off halfway through as outside noise worked it's way into Jeonghan's head.

It flickered back as soon as he lost his head again. 

A loudspeaker announcement calling attention for their flight had just been made.

How can't you see that it was the same for him? His consience came back to him, and, finished what it had to say.

Jeonghan just wanted to take Joshua with that secret.

Then, it was time to get onto the flight.


	48. FORTY-EIGHT

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Upon arrival in the Scandinavian nation of Denmark, it's immediately tits-up to political correctness, good behaviour, rules about not breaking boys hearts, the Scandinavian pagan wedding culture, and, monogamy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Brand new chapter! The blurb says it for itself :)

"Ooh, look at him." Seokmin and Soonyoung cooed over the sleeping Jihoon later that evening.

Vernon was trying not to piss himself laughing in the row in front of Jihoon, Seokmin and Soonyoung, glancing back at them through the gaps in the seats.

And, actually, the sleeping Jihoon did look very attractive in a small, compact way.

Vernon had to cover his mouth with his hand, his lips stretched and peeled apart wide in a grin over his teeth, as Soonyoung rubbed Jihoon's stomach and Seokmin hissed, "Oh, Christ, no! Don't make him fart in a confined space!"

Seungkwan had no idea what was going on, reading a cookery book of Chan's Mother's with his headphones in.

"That looks nice." Seungkwan pointed to a recipe. Before he had opened his mouth, Vernon knew it contained chocolate. And, indeed, it was chocolate. The recipe was essentially baked and sticky chocolate biscuit pudding with a squidgy centre.

"Hey, fellas." Vernon handed the book over the back of the seats to Soonyoung and Seokmin.

"Oh, yum..." Soonyoung nearly began to drawl on poor old Jihoon's chest.

"Oh, don't you dare." Seokmin told Soonyoung off in a soothing sort of manner, taking the book from his hands over Jihoon carefully and giving it back to Seungkwan, but, in doing so, he dropped it over the back of the seats and hit Seungkwan directly in the balls.

His screech deafened most of the plane, nevermind the sleeping Jihoon who kicked the seat in revenge.

"Bastard." He murmured before cuddling up into the seat again, and still frowned as he closed his eyes.

"Do you think you'll be able to sleep?" Jeonghan asked Seungcheol. Joshua was away sitting with Minghao, and, Jeonghan's abdomen and ribs felt sore and tight with underlying and very sad envy for how Joshua's lips had so tenderly touched him at the airport, a manner, a gesture, with that simple level of tenderness, that Jeonghan just knew that Joshua had learnt from Minghao and their experiences together.

"It's only a eleven hour flight." Seungcheol answered. "Only due to boredom, I think."

Jeonghan glanced up to the ceiling. "Want to watch a film?" He gestured to the screens on the backs of the seats of the row in the front.

"Only if I pick."

"Bitch."

"You're a bitch." Seungcheol grinned. "You've got a crap taste in films."

"I do not."

Seungcheol raised an eyebrow.

Jeonghan set into a huffy silence. He felt like pinching Seungcheol's cock through his jeans, but, if the air hostesses had to deal with another set of male screeching, they'd come to a quick death from height. He tried to not think about Joshua and Minghao, almost certainly touching each other in erogenius places and whispering into each other's ears in row a few behind, in the darkness. 

The air hostesses soon made a announcement about lowering the light for the evening, and, as soon as they did, Jeonghan could feel the distance energies of Joshua and Minghao plauge his system even more.

Jeonghan half covered his face with one hand, ducking his head, shame cruelly and painfully biting him. 

Seungcheol's shoulder bumped up against his. He offered Jeonghan the other-half of a ear-bud. Jeonghan swallowed and put it in. 

He grinned a few moments later.

It was WAYNE'S WORLD.

"I like this song." Joshua giggled softly to Minghao as Minghao's fingertips stroked down the curve of his length inside his jeans and underwear, their coats covering them. "Che M'importa Del Mondo" by Rita Pavone played in their ears, Minghao having offered to play Joshua the song after he told Joshua about it, the two of them trying not to make twats of themselves as Minghao told him about the first time he had ever seen "Le Dolce Vita" with Sylvia in a vintage-themed cinema.

"Dirty buggers." Woosung pointed two aisles across to Minghao and Joshua, he and Wonwoo sitting in the third row, on the left-most side of the plane. Wonwoo had to grit his teeth very hard. "Ooh, second base." Woosung whispered.

"Oh, shut up, you." Wonwoo caught the wrist that was pointing and pinned it down to the arm of the seats. "What was that you say? "We're all young once."?"

"Mhm." Woosung's eyes gazed at him intently.

Wonwoo blushed. Oh, no, look what you've started, Wonwoo's consience murmured as Woosung's index finger slid up the curve of his jaw and brought him in for a kiss.

"Bloody poofs are everywhere." A old man told his wife, reading a newspaper and shrinking down in his seat as she fondly told him about the amount of happy lovers on the plane.

-

"Oh, no, baby, what happened?" Christine-Elena laughed at the sight of the blushing Chan as they got onto a Midnight train from the Kobenhavn airport with the rest of her husband-to-be's friends. Chan had waved goodbye to his parents who had chosen to stay in a hotel rather than at Christine-Elena's parents property in Copenhagen. Chan could understand why his parents were still a bit snooty about him marrying a Scandinavian woman, but, seeing as she had more money than God, why the carry on?

"Don't tell anyone." Chan let her put an arm around him.

"Hm?" She nuzzled into his cheek briefly.

"I slipped on the floor in the bloke's loos and suddenly I had twelve cocks and their owner's faces peering down at me in hand." Chan barely whispered.

Christine-Elena cackled.

"Fella's and laddies!" She gestured excitedly to the nearest to them, which was Wonwoo, Mingyu, Woosung, and then Vernon and Seungkwan.

"Oh, I'll kill you you bloody bitch." Chan slapped her hip as she chattered on in Korean to his mates. Chan covered his face with his hands and slipped as far down in his seat as he could. It soon spread throughout the whole carriage what had happened. By the end of it, everyone was pink-cheeked and happy, though tired.

"Throw out your clothes afterwards." Mingyu sprouted advice.

Everyone agreed.

Chan gave him the bird.

Mingyu held his elbow in his other hand and gestured a dangling penis.

it set everyone off again and made Chan really quite violent give him the bird.

Christine-Elena soon practically smothered him in her huge breasts, pushing him down head-first until he stopped flailing.

Instead of going to a hotel, all of them were going to a old Edwardian emporium that was half-renovated into a family home by her parents in 2010, and, as a result, it was more than large enough to accomodate them all comfortably. 

"Mum and Dad aren't here, you know?" Christine-Elena explained to them as they walked the five blocks from the city-station to the Emporium in the warm Summer darkness. She carried one case on her head, had Chan tucked to her side with one arm, and, somehow, she had taken most of his cases off him insisting that she was big Ayrean woman and she could carry everything and look after him.

"Is this Scandinavian women when they are in love or is she sort of kicking him in the cods?" Vernon inquired with Woosung who had experience of Europeans, well, more than they did in any respect.

"Oh, no, that's just her being Pagan." Woosung explained. "Pagan men return just the same amount of intensity so it all blends together happily."

"So Chan needs to...?" Mingyu raised an eyebrow.

"Thank his lucky stars that he's got a woman that would kill for him and die for him and take it either way as bliss." Woosung nodded.

Christine-Elena looked around wonderingly as all of her husband's friends and their lovers burst out laughing and thought once again, that, yes, her Korean language skills were shocking. 

"They are in Jutland - the countryside, so beautiful - getting things ready for the wedding, you understand? Oh, and, it's ok, I think beforehand. I get Mum to do food and bed and the cleaning so it's nice for all of us, and this is good."

"Thank them for us." Seungcheol said.

"Oh, no, baby, we don't need to do that, we get married, it's their job to be servants." Christine-Elena answered sunnily, stroking Chan's hair. 

Chan got the giggles. "No, no, stop that." He whispered, taking her hand out of his hair. She put it straight back. He pinched her hip. She kicked his ankle.

"Oof!" Chan exclaimed over her kissing his ankle but all protests were lost as she kissed his cheek. 

"Christ, the woman's got a kiss like a industrial vacumn cleaner." Chan whispered to them all as they stopped at a set of traffic lights where there was roadwork construction going on all the way up the road for as far as the eye could see, and, Christine-Elena went up to ask one of the road-workers if it was outside her front door.

"You love it." Mingyu chipped in. 

"Alright, caught me out." Chan grinned.

"WHAT?!" Christine-Elena howled. They all looked over. The sign-holder was nearly pissing himself laughing as he boss, a thick man with a huge white beard, looked like Father Christmas in a high-visibility tradesman uniform as he too laughed, arms crossed over his chest atop his fat belly. She said something in Danish to the Santa-look-alike worker before coming over to them. She had a enormous grin on her face.

"There this cunt down the road called Frydenberger." Christine-Elena explained. "Worker take out this shit pipe from old days - BUT! - his property built over it!" She cackled. "They have to rip up his house and shop and he's currently being looked at by the government for taking money that not his - millions and millions of kroner!" She beamed. "I so fuckin' happy, man." She kissed Chan lovingly.

"Is all of Denmark like this?" Wonwoo, Jihoon, Minghao, Joshua, Seungcheol and Vernon inquired with Woosung. 

Woosung shrugged. "I always dealt with Krauts, not the Dansk." He answered helplessly. 

By the time they got into Christine-Elena's family's Emporium, it was nearly two 'o' clock in the morning, and, though everyone was tired, the beauty and the enormity of the Emporium was not lost.

"Fuck, they are rich." Joshua's jaw dropped.

It was five stories made even larger by each ceiling for each floor been twenty-feet high with low-toned stained hardwood floors, four meter tall arched crystal-frosted windows arranged in a multi-paned design lining the long halls and shop floors with beautifully ornate oak staircases and floating stairwell floors that went off to different rooms all across the building that had a square-footage of 1800.

"How much is this worth?" Mingyu caught Wonwoo's elbow, knowing Wonwoo was knowledgeable on all of these things.

"Upwards of seven million pounds I should think." Wonwoo said as though it was nothing.

And given that Chan's eyes were as round as tea-saucer's, Mingyu wondered if he had the same thoughts as well.

"We live in one quarter of the first and second floors that have rooms that we convert into kitchen, three bathrooms, five bedrooms, three sitting rooms, dining room, two studies, and a small plant conservatory with internal garden." Christine-Elena explained. 

"So, on a lego brick, you live on the one little knob?" Soonyoung asked.

Christine-Elena giggled. "Yeah, man, nice way to say it." She rubbed his temple. "Nice brain."

She got back to her explanation. "Mum and I think it best that we put you in a section of the ballroom." Christine-Elena explained. "Close acsess to what is our house but we couldn't fit you all in our actual house, so, all your beds and that are in ballroom. Ballroom is nice and cool for the heat with heavy curtains and brick so there is no bad light or car sound. Not so many cars, we're all on bikes, I guess."

"Where's my Mum and Dad?" Chan asked her. 

Christine-Elena blinked. "In a minute." She told him. She took them into the ballroom, and, the sight that met their eyes was relief but also shock for the grandeur and the beautiful restoration and preservation of the original architecture. Around the room was a second and third storey stairwell with a staircase at one end and a slightly lower pit for a orchestra.

"This is amazing." Minghao said.

But, for what was relevant to them, there was fifteen blow up beds and mattresses at one end of the ballroom, made up with linen sheets and thick duvets with spare blankets at the end of each mattress or otherwise bed. As soon as she got them there, she went to the opposite end of the ballroom and up the grand staircase at the centre of the south end of the room to the first stairwell - the second storey stairwell - and went off through a doorway.

"What...?" Seungcheol was halfway through saying when he was cut off by Christine-Elena screeching.

"M. AND MRS LEE, YOU IN HERE?! BABY WANT TO KNOW!"

"Oh my God..." Chan buried his face in his hands.

A moment later, she leant over the railing, her full lips peeling back in a smile to reveal her gap teeth, her silvery-blonde hair falling over her shoulder and over the rail.

"Dad is on the shitter and Mum in bed." She told him. 

Vernon's snort of laughter set them all off.

"THANK YOU FOR YOUR UN-POLITICAL CORRECTNESS!" Vernon shouted up to her before sticking his thumbs up in a salute of admiration to her. 

Christine-Elena gracefully bowed as though she was a opera singer at the end of her incredible performance.

"You men hungry?" Christine-Elena asked them. Everyone decided that their tiredness was more prevalent than hunger. 

Within half an hour, they were all settled in their beds, and, they were all dead asleep except for only the one of them.

Jeonghan's eyes slid over to where Joshua was sleeping with Minghao, the two of them pressed up together, their legs messed loosely together, nose to nose. Ew, breathing each other's breath, that's gross, Jeonghan thought spitefully as his eyes looked to the pale lines of Joshua's bar back illuminated in the faint strains of moonlight from the third floor stairwell crystal-frosted multipaned arched windows. They weren't as thin as they used to be.

Jeonghan turned onto his back on the blow-up mattress and consulted the ceiling above him, a curved dome, and, for some reason, it reminded him of a upside down dory with it's original renassiance-inspired fression and cornices made by the Edwardian's in the early 1910's. Jeonghan knew the ceiling was a pale cream, almost with a duck-blue-egg quality, the slightest tone to it, but, now, it looked the colour of mocha, rose-gold mocha. Like a make-up pallet, Jeonghan thought to himself. 

He suddenly loathed to be surrounded by all his sleeping friends and their lovers and wife-to-be's. 

He just wished he was by himself.

Jeonghan almost felt that any energy of his was so powerful that it would wake up anyone and everyone.

In the end, he got up and pulled on his dressing gown around him. It was a lovely black silk ankle-length one that had come from Minghao, or, rather, Sylvia, in that scrubbed-down Dansk wardrobe of hers in her home back in Korea. 

Jeonghan walked around the emporium, and, in a way, it was still mostly an emporium. It...It was a funny sort of atmosphere. Like the property was still a functioning empire, jewelry and clothes and cafe and distillery, and this funny race of people moved in overnight, and, by the morning, when the owner's in their tailored linen slacks and rock-necklaces turned up in the morning, there emporium was still a empire for jewelry, clothes, coffee and alcohol. As though it wasn't really real...

On the fifth floor was a balcony. Jeonghan spent a long time in the top-most room. It was a simply room, the size of he, Joshua and Seungcheol's apartment sitting room and kitchen back in Korea. It had a arched-curved french doors with pale-stained timber paneling amongst the un-frosted glass with heavy, rose-toned curtains either side of it. Jeonghan wondered why those curtains were that gentle, dusky pink when any other curtains in the emporium were a pale cream, that faint duck-egg-blue, or, a oat-meal tone. On the French doors were two rennasicance-inspired curved brass handles, and, when he tried them, his hesitation fading, they clicked open. 

Jeonghan stepped onto the balcony, and, the feeling, and the sight, of Copenhagen after dark filled up his senses. After Midnight traffic, smouldering gold street light, centuries-old architecture, Elm and Ash Oak trees lining the pavements, the sights of bicycles tied to racks outside Georgian-era apartments, the sight of the canal with it's fishing boats and it's river-campers a few blocks away, where all the house were all different colours - lemon, pink, blue, green, orange, green, and white.

He sat down on the balcony and leant against the wrought-iron railing, bringing his knees covered by the silk of the dressing gown to his chest and wrapping his arms around his knees. He leant his head on it's side against the railing, and, he stayed there for hours. 

-

"And I sat there for ages, looking at your optimistic smile as we talk about that boy whose going to be getting onto you...you..." Minghao softly sung at half-ten the next morning as he made himself a coffee in the kitchen, a cigarette in-between his fingers as he sorted out emails on his phone, the phone sitting on the kitchen island, while Junhui organized copious amounts of vegemite toast, having fallen in love due to his Australian exposure.

"That's a nice song."

"Is it?"

"No."

Minghao smiled. He sidelong eyed Junhui's vegemite toast. 

"Want some?" Junhui offered him. 

"Tastes like a cats arsehole."

"Only because Whoopi Goldberg said that and I'm rather interested to know how she figured that one out."

Minghao chuckled. "Okay." He said, looking up at Junhui.

Junhui raised his eyebrows, pleasantly surprised. "Now, two things." He raised a finger in the air. "You only spread vegemite very, very thinly - this is vegemite, not cake icing - and, in Australia, they usually have butter as a base laying but I prefer the vegemite on un-buttered toast. I suppose it makes a difference but I want my toast how I like my toast, que bera -" Junhui paused, mucking up the Spanish saying, or, not really knowing it at all.

Minghao breifly felt like he did when he and Junhui were sort of dating, but, mostly fucking each other up. 

Suddenly he was hit with the memory of Junhui fucking him in the bathroom, and the way the heat of his body electrocuted Minghao's system before covering him as he moved over the top of him...

Minghao, as a result, snatched a bit of toast and rather savagely bit into it.

He had never been good with memories.

All to often it was like having a form of post traumatic stress; it made him swear or shiver or feel absolutely sick.

"Woah, woah, hold on there, mate." Junhui laughed. "It won't posion you, slow down."

Minghao didn't really chew it, letting it sit in his mouth.

"That'll be the celery salt and the yeast." Junhui explained, gesturing to his jaw. 

Minghao swallowed it. 

"It's a pretty savoury thing, not like jam or something that has fruit in it." Junhui carefully observed Minghao.

"I've never had anything like that in my life." Minghao blinked down at the remaining bit he held in his hand. "No, I just mean, literally, I've never - I can't even make a comparison because there isn't one." He turned around and looked behind him. "What's the go there?" He pointed at the orange-glowing wall oven that held a tray.

"Oh, that's Chrissie's doing." Junhui explained. "Putting small-cut potatoes in the oven with a layer of canola oil and salt and making them into chips then with bowls of vinegar."

"I didn't know the Danish ate stuff like that."

"Yeah, 'cause they don't, it's an Aussie thing I told her about earlier when she checked on Chan's Mum and Dad."

"What's wrong wiht them?" Minghao frowned.

"Oh, nothing, she says having your in-laws stay over is like having children in the house." Junhui explained.

"I hope Chan knows this." Minghao said before he took a sip of his coffee.

"It's why he fell in love." Junhui grinned with a shrug.

Minghao clasped his hands together, resting his elbows on the kitchen island. "Did you ever love me?" He asked Junhui. It had been nearly a year since the disaster in their house of Junhui finding Minghao and Joshua in bed together.

Junhui looked at him. "Do you really need to ask me that?"

-

Chan woke up due to two reasons.

One, Christine-Elena wasn't asleep on his arm, and, amongst his dreams, he had just had the most horrifying thought.

His stag party. 

What the hell were the guys going to do, and, on top of that, what was Christine-Elena going to do?

The idea of a Stag party was fucking invented by Pagans!

And how it was traditionally done - done by Pagans - was a far cry from a few beers and a stripper that the Western world now took view on. 

Chan swallowed.

It could be anything, couldn't it?

It had to be anything, couldn't it?

Thoughts ranged in Chan's mind from getting chased by wild dogs to getting held down while his testicles were tattooed.

And God only knew what actually went on.

You couldn't look it up on Google.

Trust me, I've tried, Chan planned to say to anyone who said that to him in any way, shape or form in manner's concerning Christine-Elena, her family, and, their whole deal.

-

Joshua looked up at a painting on the wall of the Emporium in the third floor entrance hallway for ages and ages, his head tilted to one side slightly. 

It was a plain canvas in a plain, simple wooden frame with two English-language words written in black paint by a thick oil brush.

THE ART.

Of what? Joshua thought to himself. Minimalism? Simplicity? Nothing? Or is it saying that this whole place is the art or that whoever looking at it is the art?

Whatever you do, don't bring it up with Minghao, the meditation will go on for fifty bloody years, his consience murmured all the while.

-

Chan confided his worries to Woosung - and only because Woosung knew about this sort of thing - over breakfast. The chip-like potatoes that Junhui had told Christine-Elena about had been a hit with Woosung, Vernon, Mingyu, Seungcheol and Jihoon who had virtually snaffled the lot all on their own. In the dining room, Gary Wright's "Dreamwaver" played on a small radio on a windowsill over-looking the ballroom.

"Oh, no, no, no." Woosung murmured soothingly, patting Chan's back. "The Stag icon is based on Curennos, the Indigenous Cymry llwythiau paganaith God of the Forest; before marriage it was expected that the Stag, the man, was to take on the task of his life to not only prove to himself that he was a man, but, also to his bride that he was strong enough to take care of her for the rest of their lives. He had to collect the wood from twelve different trees I think it is, make a huge bonfire, cook and kill some creature, hurt or kill a Christian as a act of devotion to bride and family - this was still being done in the 1930's, I should add - to hang as a decoration outside the home, but, also, he had to prove he was a man by control of the llwythiau, or, rather, the herd, as you would."

"Oh." Chan nodded. "So, no sex or tattooes or pain?"

"Oh, no, of course there is!" Woosung exclaimed. "But that's Wales and this is Denmark, so, it's different."

"How different?" Chan pressed.

"I'll ask Minghao about that Druid of the dead girls; he'll know." Woosung promised Chan who felt even more anxious than before.

-

"Oh, this is awesome."

Jihoon, Wonwoo, Junhui, Vernon and Seokmin wandered about Copenhagen together. Wonwoo swayed side to side slightly with Junhui as they danced. Wonwoo had liked the song that had played on the radio in the dining room during breakfast, and, Vernon had figured out with his English-skills what the song was for them.

"Ooo, dreamweaver

I believe you can get me through the night

Ooo, dreamweaver

I believe we can reach the golden light

Dreamweaver

Dreamweaver..."

"We look like dicks." Jihoon mumbled, ducking his head in his hoodie and looking down to his phone. 

"We don't say that when you wriggle your butt around to British stuff." Seokmin grinned as Jihoon went to genuinely kick him in his wedding tackle.

"Denmark is a nice place to get married." Wonwoo commented.

"Yeah, it is." Vernon was filming Wonwoo and Junhui on his phone. "Give us a "hell-yeah"!"

"Hell-yeah!" Wonwoo and Junhui promptly complied.

Having fun, they didn't notice Jihoon behind them all turn on his heel and purposely wander off away from all of them.

It was Moon Kyung-han, the man handling Jihoon and Madeleine's divorce.

"Jihoon, we have a small delight."

"Yeah?" Jihoon said quickly, putting a hand in his pockets and feeling glad that he had his hoodie on even though he was admist a Scandinavian Summer for he felt so cold.

"She won't be removing any of your monies simply for the purpose that she doesn't need it, and, if anything, you can take money from her."

"What do you mean?" Jihoon rubbed a hand over his mouth.

"Her Father and his two brother's own a logging company that is worth roughly twenty-five million pounds." The solicitor told him. 

Jihoon choked. "They do not."

"They do and isn't it interesting how this wretched bitch never made comment of this?" Kyung-han noted in a well-humored, gentle-toned remark. "How does another, say, two-and-a-half million pounds in divorce settlement added to your fortune sound to you?"

As soon as the call was politely over, Jihoon, no matter his weak heart, already having taken a battering from Moon Kyung-han, rushed and rushed the three blocks back to where the boys were waiting for him, looking confused and unsettled, but, it all turned into shock when Jihoon dived into Seokmin's arms, kissing his cheek, and said, "WE'VE FUCKING DONE IT!"


	49. FORTY-NINE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chan gets nervous about pagan wedding traditions, Woosung offers to help get him out of it, and, it turns out that Jeonghan and Seungcheol will need to play the part of "mates of the groom" as cultural revelations about Christine-Elena's tribe come to light. Jeonghan grapples with Joshua's devotion to Minghao and Minghao asks Sylvia's Druid a important question

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're starting to get vaguely critical :) I could have written the wedding by now and had them all back in Korea and causing a riot now, but, I want the full Northern Exposure experience, so, here we are :)

"Two-and-a-half-million quid?!" Jeonghan shouted.

"Yeah." Jihoon nodded, laughing his head off.

Jeonghan gawped before laughing also. 

"Oh, well, Christmas party at your house this year, Hoons." Jeonghan held out his arms and got a quick hug from Jihoon.

"Now all I need to do is find a new woman." Jihoon commented as he pulled away from Jeonghan.

"Oh, no, we can't lose you again." Jeonghan told him.

Jihoon grinned. "Nah, we'll be fine."

Jeonghan couldn't dismiss the hope in his eyes. He hugged Jihoon again.

-

Chan felt a little bit nauseous.

"So I've got to find a deer, capture a deer, kill the dear, gut the dear, cook the deer, and then take it's bones, and make them into a jewelry for her but painting them and stuff?" Chan checked with Woosung who had found out from Minghao who had found out from Sylvia's Druid who had found of a Icelandic Bard of his what Chan's wedding plans looked like as far as Christine-Elena was concerned. 

"Or, as my wedding present to you, I can help you cheat?" Woosung offered.

Chan took it like a shot, shaking Woosung's hand in a deal. 

"Oh, and whose going to walk you down the aisle?" Woosung asked.

"Oh, you're kidding me!" Chan howled.

"What's the matter?" Woosung looked at him.

"No way in hell is my Mum or Dad going to do that!" Chan exclaimed.

-

Seungcheol choked on his coffee as he read a text Chan had just sent him.

"Careful." Joshua chided softly, dipping the edge of a croissant into his coffee before scoffing it.

Back at the Emporium, Chan, Woosung, Jihoon, Wonwoo, Junhui, Vernon and Seokmin - finished their walkabout and getting tired easy from the jetlag - waited for Seungcheol's answer while Jeonghan, also home, had no idea what was going on nonetheless because he was snoring in soft purrs on the divan in the sitting room, a couple of duvet covers from the ballroom beds put over him by Chan's Mother, who, as yet, had no idea either that her son was going to ask his two oldest mates to help with his wedding instead of her and her husband.

"No, no, no, fucking no, look!" Seungcheol shoved his phone under Joshua's nose.

Joshua gawped as he read it.

Can you and Jeonghan-hyung give me away at the wedding? Call me

"My God - why?!" Joshua looked at Seungcheol in shock. "He's the bloody fella!"

"Shut up, shut up, he's ringing!" Vernon squawked as Seokmin chattered to Jihoon. 

"JESUS CHRIST, HOW DIFFERENT ARE SCANDI PAGAN WEDDINGS TO OURS?!" Seungcheol's voice hollered down the line.

"I'll let Woosung explain." Chan gave his phone to the older man.

"What would usually happen isn't happening because Chan is Korean." Woosung said. "He's only the third mix-raced Scandi marriage in the last five hundred years."

"What?" Seungcheol looked at Joshua across their table in the cafe. 

"Only three Scandinavian Pagans have married outside their native race in the last five hundred years." Woosung repeated. "Minghao asked Sylvia's Druid who asked a mate of his who is a Icelandic Bard which means he does spiritual music but also naturalism, geneaology, anthropology and indigenous history. He's a expert in all four categories, I should add, also."

"Only three in half-millenium has married someone whose not Scandi?"

"That's right."

"Oh, fuck me dead." Joshua said, burying his face in his hands.

"So what does this mean then?" Seungcheol asked.

"Massive fucking ordeal." Woosung told him with a business-like grace and frankness. "Now, usually, in a Scandi wedding, the groom's family takes him to the top of the aisle-thing as such and then backs off. The bride's father then takes her up to where the groom is, etc. But, what it is now, where the girl usually marries out of her family and marries into the groom's, this is Christine-Elena marrying out of her tribe, out of her native, out of her race. But, that's not going to happen, her tribe won't let her go, so, what we have to do, even though it goes against the pagan laws of pagan nature and nature itself, is to marry Chan into her family, her tribe, her native, because Christine-Elena's tribes loves her too much to let her go." Woosung sighed. "So, not only do we need someone to present Chan to the tribe, we need someone to deliver him as such. And, before you ask, there is no way in hell that his parents will consent to this. It'll be warfare."

Seungcheol looked at Joshua. "Chan, put me onto Chan." He asked.

Woosung gave Chan's phone back to him.

"Chan, listen, you here, mate?" Seungcheol checked.

"Yeah, Cheol-hyung."

"I'll do it, mate." Seungcheol had to grip Joshua's hand on the table for support. "We'll do it. We'll do this wedding business. We'll look after you."

"Aw..." Jihoon, Wonwoo, Junhui, Vernon and Seokmin went.

"Oh, no, there there, now." Junhui put an arm around Seokmin as, always the easy cryer, he began to tear up. 

But, in the back of Wonwoo, Jihoon and Vernon's minds was the one thought:

Who was going to tell Jeonghan and how were they going to bullshit M. and Mrs. Lee?

-

"And here you go again, taking over my life a second time." Jeonghan said to Joshua, sitting at some sort of table with his head laying on it's side on his arms laying on the table, folded one-by-the-other, gazing up at Joshua who was leaning against a section of wall by a window that looked like one of the Emporium's windows.

Jeonghan's eyes flew open from the dream.

Great, thinking of pinching your boss's boyfriend, that's intelligent, his snarky consience immediately punished him. 

Joshua felt like the moon.

To Jeonghan at least.

That the love and urge and desire that Jeonghan felt for him was borrowed, used, taken, re-made from another time in their lives, another point in their existence on the earth, and Jeonghan was now shining it out just like the moon radiated the sun's burning, scalding atmosphere to make itself illuminate. And, yet, how beautiful was that, taking a piece of good to make the already astounding you shine?

Except, their current situation wasn't like the sun and the moon.

For the moon didn't get jealous of the sun who was once his boyfriend going off with one of their mates who was also now the moon's boss.

Besides.

The moon was a woman.

Well, that's certainly fucked me up, hasn't it? Jeonghan thought to himself.

A strange sensation filled him up.

Everyone was awake and doing something, but, he couldn't hear anything. He couldn't even hear outside. No sound of traffic or wind or birds or human chatter, human footsteps. Not a sound. Jeonghan looked around behind him to see the door to the ballroom closed, and, he wondered if that door, that seal, was truly capable of making the ballroom soundproof or whether or not it was just him.

Maybe it was just him.

Or...not.

Jeonghan didn't know.

He couldn't figure it out as his skin began to itch with the need for sex.

Oh, no, Jeonghan thought. No way was he going in for a masturbation session in what was effectively Christine-Elena's small mansion; he had zero capacity for fucking, especially if it was just himself, and had been like it for months. With Neve, things hadn't...but without Neve there was such a sharp, nagging reality. One that didn't involve a set of multiple orgasms.

You should just text him, Jeonghan's consience told him reasonably.

But Jeonghan ignored it.

Jeonghan glanced across the section of ballroom to the mattress that Minghao and Joshua slept, and, a faint idea came to him. 

Jeonghan knew he shouldn't be doing it - along a lot of other things - but, a deep desire in him moved his limbs automatically into the direction of Minghao and Joshua's suitcases.

Jeonghan hissed in fury. 

In Minghao's suitcase was every sort of sexual apparatus possible hidden underneath all of his clothes.

How the fuck did he smuggle all of this shit into this country? Jeonghan thought bitterly to himself, seeing a plug that he just knew - a primal knowledge - that was bought by Minghao for Joshua to stuff into him beneath "sessions". Because it was the exact sort of thing Jeonghan would have collected for Joshua had he had the chance, and, he knew that Joshua would definitely have -

Jeonghan slammed the lid of Minghao's suitcase down and went for Joshua's. 

The made Jeonghan's blood pressure rise even further. 

There were printed polaroid pictures of Minghao in..."a state of nature".

And even a couple of him with a cock-ring and a vibrator stuffed in him. 

Jeonghan had to stop himself from tearing up the pictures into a dozen little bits.

As he stuffed them back into a pocket of Joshua's suitcase, he saw a folded piece of paper in an envelope that had Joshua's name scribbled on the front.

Don't look, Jeonghan's consience warned him but he went ahead with it anyhow. 

All that letter came to do was personify just how intensely he missed Joshua.

It was the one line, really, that got him.

Forever isn't half the time that I want to spend with you.

It was written by Minghao for Joshua.

They're so in love, a voice in the back of Jeonghan's mind murmured. No matter what you want do - lose weight, put it on, change, look different, get different - they want the other

Jeonghan threw the letter across the room and stormed away back into the home of the Emporium, and, was launched into a state of shock due to the state in the sitting room. As soon as he appeared before the doorway, Chan, Woosung, Jihoon, Wonwoo, Junhui, Vernon and Seokmin all seized him and drew him into a tight net, all chattering excitably. Woosung calmed down the younger men, and, over a few minutes, explained the situation to Jeonghan as Chan gazed at him hopefully with optimistic eyes, Junhui and Vernon pressed up into his side tightly and supportfully on the divan. 

"So, what do you say?" Chan asked Jeonghan. 

Josh's going to kill me, Jeonghan thought even though he knew he shouldn't be worrying about what Joshua thought.

"Yes." Jeonghan nodded, feeling light and groggy and vague, and smiled nonetheless. "Yes, of course, Chan, of course."

And Jeonghan didn't really understand much after that as all of a sudden all of his mates dived on him in a tackled hug and Woosung declared that that was then 95% of the wedding organised.

-

"Hey." Minghao called Sylvia's old Druid on his phone, standing up on the rooftop of the Emporium. There was the scent of rain in the air, but, with the Scandinavian summer sky so pearl-like and opalescent with a crescent-like white sun, it didn't quite seem like it would rain, for, it didn't quite seem like Earth. But the rain would be beautiful, were to to pour right at that moment. Pink and white and gently, faintly gold, coming from the heavens above. 

"Hey, lad." Minghao could feel the Druid's rugged smile around his whiskery face on the other end of the line.

Minghao talked to him for ages.

He had one sole question for the Welsh Druid, though.

"Is it okay to be lovers forever?" Minghao asked the Druid. 

"Well, that's how it meant to be, son." Druid simply answered.

Minghao smiled.

"Diolch, Derwydd." He told the man. "Rwyn du garu di."

The Druid chuckled. "Rwyn du garu di, Minghao." The man responded. "Tell me if you and that love of yours ever want to get married."

Minghao's heart swelled in his chest at the mere thought.

-

"Fucking Christ, what have I just agreed to?" Seungcheol asked Joshua faintly as the Scandinavian summer sky broke, and rain began to fall upon them, and, all the while, for some peculiar reason, the theme from The Addam's Family began to play in Seungcheol's mind as he tried not to clutch Joshua's arm too tightly in public as they both got wet, gazing silently at each other, thinking just what had they got themselves into as Chan had fallen in love. 


	50. FIFTY

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vernon worries if Chan and Christine-Elena's relationship will come to be a disaster after marriage like Jihoon and Madeleine's, Jeonghan seethes over Minghao being with Joshua as he models for Minghao in Copenhagen to such an extent that he shoved him into a canal, Joshua faints after Christine-Elena tells him that Jeonghan can wear a dress at the wedding, they all have their first proper dinner party in Denmark, and, Jeonghan confesses to Seungcheol how he is in love with Joshua again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got no idea what to write. I'm too occupied with the wedding

"So, when is this bloody wedding actually happening?" Vernon asked Junhui. It was now the evening and Christine-Elena appeared to be trying to roast four lambs at once with slowed-down African-American electro-pop break-up songs playing from her phone on the kitchen island. They were idly waiting in the ballroom, laying on their beds while up the other end of the ballroom, Seungkwan and Jihoon talked about a new music release by someone that Vernon had vaguely heard of once.

"About a week's time." Junhui loosely described, not entirely sure himself.

"Right." Vernon nodded.

"I think." Junhui think.

"Oh, God." Vernon groaned, covering his face with his hands.

"Don't you like Denmark?" Junhui asked him. 

"No, I just feel funny." Vernon sighed. "I think I don't think it'll last. Because we thought that Maddie and Jihoon would be together until the day they died and look what happened?"

Junhui became silent. "Don't jinx them." He warned Vernon.

Vernon shut his mouth, heading Junhui's words, knowing precisely from experience.

-

Minghao asked Jeonghan if he would model for photographs around Copenhagen as the night came around.

There was no way that Jeonghan could turn him down.

If anything, Jeonghan was happy purely for the purpose that he was in a mid-calf-length navy dress he liked with black chanel tights with the two interlocked c's embroidered in a tiny pattern over them in high-heeled doc-marten chunk boots with a leather jacket, black smudged kohl around his eyes and his silvery hair pinned up loosely around his features, trendles falling around in odd but pretty places.

"Can I have one your cigarettes?" Jeonghan asked Minghao.

"You remember how to smoke them?" Minghao checked.

"Yeah." Jeonghan nodded numbly, tucking his hair behind his ears, lips tightly pursed together for a moment as his heart ached for a few seconds, and so did the space behind his eyes, making his vision swim, the sight of his doc martens and the 18th century cobblestones beneath him turning to a knife-painting shown before frosted glass. 

The camera of Minghao's flashed off.

"Keep that face." Minghao requested and Jeonghan continued to move minimally in the same mode, giving Minghao what he wanted.

Minghao fished out one plus his lighter for Jeonghan, and, he took more pictures as Jeonghan lit the cigarette, took the first initial draw of it, savoured it, released it with half-lidded eyes, and, then, tucked Minghao's cigarette lighter into the breast panel of the front of his dress. 

"I'll have to try and get Joshua to model for me one day," Minghao said as he adjusted the scope of the camera lens, his fingertips wrapping around the spheres. "He's so pretty."

Jeonghan seethed bitterly. 

The camera went off again.

-

Joshua wanted to know who went through his things. 

For some reason just within himself, the first person he had a go at was Christine-Elena.

"If your face no break once I break it again, slope cunt." She raced a mincing hammer threateningly in the kitchen. Joshua went to run for his life but the Scandinavian woman seized him by the back of his shirt and pulled him back. A beautiful smile lay dazzling on her pretty mouth. "Tell Jeonghan that if he want to wear frock at the wedding is ok." She stroked Joshua's nose.

Joshua fainted from the shock.

-

Seungkwan came over to Veron laying on his bed on his phone and laid down beside him. They both looked around as the doors to the ballroom were kicked open.

"The fuck...?" Vernon mumbled, seeing the sight of Christine-Elena in a oatmeal-toned apron and headscarf carrying a unconcious Joshua. 

"The fuck...?" Vernon mumbled, seeing the sight of Christine-Elena in a oatmeal-toned apron and headscarf carrying a unconcious Joshua. 

She didn't even bother with Korean, she just spoke in Danish, and, rather tenderly, took off his shoes and socks and tucked him into he and Minghao's bed with a sense of professional disposition. "I cook right now, you take care of him." She pointed at him, talking squarely to Vernon and Seungkwan, having not entirely noticed Jihoon or Junhui who scrambled over to Joshua.

"Hey, hey, hey, why's he like that, what you do to him?" Vernon dived up and caught Christine-Elena's elbow.

"I say that if Jeonghan want to wear frock to wedding is ok." Christine-Elena shrugged.

"Oh, Christ." Junhui went.

"You know he's Christian, right?" Jihoon said.

"Barely." Christine-Elena told them. "I'm Pagan, I know about Christians, he not that Christian, it's all fart."

-

"Right, that's enough, Chan told us to be back in ten minutes because Chrissie's cooking dinner." Minghao told Jeonghan as Jeonghan peered into one of Copenhagen's canals. 

"Come here for a minute?" Jeonghan asked.

Minghao did.

"Is that just me or is that a Rabbi in thongs?" Jeonghan pointed across the canal and over the hull of a river-boat, pointing to a man packing a suitcase into a old cortina. Indeed, a Jewish Rabbi wore his traditional garments except for a pair of black skinny jeans rolled up over the ankles with a pair of flip-flop slip-on shoes.

-

"FOOD RIGHT HERE!"

The boys gawped at the sight of Christina single-handledly carrying two massive canoe-like teak bowls with two roast lambs in the teak bowls with salad and roast vegetables. Chan followed behind her with a enormous tray of various other things, and, Chan's Mother and Father followed with the - to be accurate - small tankards of whatever grog the Danes drank and about forty-million shot glasses and then wine glasses.

The dining room was beautiful; there was two massive Art Deco walnut tables shunted together with five candleabras lit with flame, and small bowls of grapes, nuts, crackers and cheese spread up the table. The dining room was beautiful, with the east wall giving way to two bay-windows with their curtains tied back and the windows open, letting in the Danish summer air. There wasn't any mosquitoes or flies about; Junhui himself as an individual relished in the fact of being able to have windows and doors open and not have to be armed with a can of agent orange fly-spray. 

Seeing as it was effectively their first proper dinner in Denmark in Christine-Elena and her families Emporium, and, for all the effort she had gone to, everyone made the effort to look nice - fresh shirts, breath mint, no woollen hat on Vernon's part for sense of common decency at the table - except for Jeonghan who was still dressed as Minghao had organized him, having not time to change. Minghao was in a similar disposition. 

"What happened to you, lad?" Chan's Father commented to Minghao once seated, a drop of canal water tipping from Minghao's black mullet fringe down his pale cheek while Jeonghan's own cheeks went bright pink as he tried to not obviously smile over Minghao's damp, cold, hunch-shouldered being. 

"We saw a Rabbi in a thong." Jeonghan explained.

Jihoon choked on a drink of water and Soonyoung asked what a Rabbi was.

"Oh, nice to know it's not just us fucking losing it!" Joshua shouted of the Anglo-Saxon Christian Church.

"Oh, baby, it's ok." Christine-Elena came around the enormous table to him and patted his hair gently, getting his glass and pouring deep-red liquid into it. "Drink the visalia, we'll be ok, man." Christine-Elena looked astonishingly pretty in a ankle-length a-line dark blue canvas dress with no sleeves and a small collar with a high-neck and long-sleeves translucent black voile top worn underneath it with carved rose-quartz studs in her ears and her silvery-white hair, let be naturally and gently curling, pinned up with a careful looseness. 

Joshua necked it with such a speed that you could be forgiven for thinking that he inhaled it. 

"What is it?" He asked her afterwards, running his tongue over the backs of his teeth.

"Cherry wine." Chan told him.

"Ja, makes you get stiff." Christine-Elena took a tea-towel from her shoulder that was rolled, and held in front of her abdomen. "And when you tired -" Just as the sentence came out of her mouth, the tea-towel, once stiff, flopped.

Everyone quite ungracefully choked, snorted, coughed, and laughed apart from Wonwoo whose hand curved up over his chin and lips to his nose attractively, his eyes closing as he smiled, the sight of his lips visible through his parted fingers on a mildly turned wrist.

"Need to get a picture of that..." Minghao murmured to himself.

"How much you think you like?" Christine-Elena asked. "I work for your wet one."

Everyone lost it again.

"Ah, cunts, I know I can't speak Korean!" Christine-Elena held her hands up in the air as even the bedraggled Minghao couldn't help grinning.

"I'll have a little bit." Minghao gestured, holding hid index and thumb fingers apart slightly.

"To start and then you eat lots more." Christine-Elena leant over him so the back of Minghao's head pressed against her breasts and decolletage mildly as she began to carve the first roast, and, as she did, Woosung, Seungcheol and Chan's Father started on the other three. 

"It tastes nice, Christine." Chan's Mother told her after tasting the first bite of a slice her husband gave her.

"If you call me one name it Chrissie or Elena, woman." Christine-Elena answered.

Chan's eyes scampered across the table to Seokmin, immediately not wanting to be asscioated with a potentional spat between his Mother and wife-to-be.

"Christine." Chan's Mother nodded, raising a glass of wine to her lips.

Minghao felt Christine's muscles tightened in her arms either side of his head. Clearly she doesn't care if I die while in this position, Minghao thought of Chan's Mother, tipping his head back to look up at Christine-Elena, or, rather, the underside of her jaw and her neck.

"Good for you." Christine-Elena kissed his nose as she put dinner on his plate.

"Do that to me!" Soonyoung called.

The happy atmosphere came back to the dining room as everyone laughed again. 

-

"But the splash that went off as I slipped and went in - I couldn't believe it!" Minghao said to Joshua in the bathtub in one of the Emporium home's three bathrooms, his eyes closed as Joshua gently massaged soap in his hair that stunk of the canal. "It felt like I got whipped, like a bolt of lightening hit me."

"You didn't get any of the water in your mouth, did you?" Joshua asked.

"No." Minghao answered.

"Good, there's probably rubbish, sewergae and animal carcasses in that canal." 

Minghao felt quite sick all of a sudden. 

Joshua chuckled. "I think you'll survive." He hummed suddenly. "That's something we should do while we're here." Joshua said to Minghao. "We should go swimming somewhere - not a pool full of chlorine and urine, like, a lake or something somewhere. Maybe when we leave the city and go up to where Chan and Chrissie's wedding is." 

"Please be naked." Minghao opened one eye slowly as Joshua rinsed the soap out of his hair with a detachable shower-head invention that one could secure over the bath-tap with a rubber seal. 

Joshua grinned.

"God, you're pretty." One of Minghao's hands came out of the water and curved around Joshua's neck. Joshua immediately leaned in, his eyes fluttering close as he and Minghao kissed. At that point in the time, with the bath-tap still building water pressure in the head, now floating underwater as Joshua and Minghao kissed, the laws of physics decided that the passion soon had to come again.

The detachable shower head exploded from the tap, sending water everywhere and whipping Minghao between the legs.

Both Minghao and Joshua shrieked, "Oh, fuck!"

-

"So, we're literally like Chan's Mumma and Dad." Seungcheol commented to Jeonghan who chuckled. They were sitting up on the roof of the Emporium together with a couple of beers after dinner. Both were completely full inside, and, as Jeonghan termed it, they just about looked pregnant. Christine-Elena turned out to be a brilliant cook. There wasn't a single thing on the table that didn't taste nice and there wasn't a thing on that table left untasted, either.

"If boys take care of girls, girls must take of boys." Christine-Elena had remarked over it as she was flooded with praised, particuarly by Woosung, who, he himself remarked, it was rather difficult to get a decent roast and then actually go through making it back in Korea.

"You come any time you like, all of you, I cook for everyone." Christine-Elena had told them all.

"Yeah." Seungcheol nodded, raising the beer to his lips. 

"You see his Mum bitching at Chrissie, earlier?" Jeonghan commented.

"You see Minghao getting fondled by her -" Seungcheol gestured to his chest.

Jeonghan grinned. "No one could ever say that's a bad thing."

"Yeah." Seungcheol glanced at him. "You going to try and get a girlfriend or are we -" Seungcheol stopped abruptly, having completely forgotten about Neve.

Jeonghan gazed at him intently. "Is that what you want?"

"I want you to be happy." Seungcheol said.

"But that's not quite it." Jeonghan blinked softly.

Seungcheol ducked his head down to look at his knees, ashamed.

"Wish I could be alright with it but I'm not." Seungcheol mumbled, rubbing the knuckle of his little finger on his left hand with the pad of the thumb of his right, hands clasped over his lap. "I'm sorry."

"I get it." Jeonghan leant his head on Seungcheol's shoulder. He peered up at the mildly cloudy black Danish night sky above; there was smudged wisps where the stars were blocked out occasionally, but, there was still plenty to shine down, twinkling like very little diamonds. 

"Do you?" Seungcheol looked at him.

"Yeah." Jeonghan nodded a little.

"...Do you sort of feel that we've had this conversation five hundred times before?" Seungcheol asked.

"And we'll probably have it five hundred times more." Jeonghan's head tilted back, looking up at Seungcheol. "We'll probably be having this conversation on and off for the rest of our lives." Jeonghan held out one of his hand to Seungcheol, the fingers loose and splayed, something natural, something not constructued. "Hold my hand." Jeonghan murmured.

Seungcheol did.

"MOTHERFUCKERS!"

Seungcheol and Jeonghan looked down at the slate beneath them.

"That'd be fucking right." Seungcheol said as Jeonghan remarked, "And that's the fucking moment gone."

"Should we go down and see?" Seungcheol asked.

"Nah." Jeonghan shifted closer into Seungcheol's side, bringing his knees up towards his chest slightly, re-settling his head on Seungcheol's shoulder. "Let's stay like this forever, or, a little while at least."

Their hands re-entwined. 

"You looked in Josh's case, didn't you?" Seungcheol questioned Jeonghan.

Said man didn't say anything.

"Oh, come on, love." Seungcheol's leant his head against Jeonghan's. "Something's going on."

"Oh, come on, love." Seungcheol's leant his head against Jeonghan's. "Something's going on."

Jeonghan thought on his head and heart. It was the ultimate question. Head or heart? In his head he knew that he had to shut up, move on, be better, but, the ache in his heart overwhelmed the sense of his mind. Every synapse of his being screamed at him to do the right thing, the sensible thing, but, all Jeonghan wanted to do was listen to the pull in his chest that wanted him to tell Seungcheol. Jeonghan knew his heart thought that telling Seungcheol - it wouldn't matter - but his head knew different. 

"I'm in love with Shua." Jeonghan told Seungcheol. 


	51. FIFTY-ONE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wonwoo gives Woosung the chance of a lifetime to start the career in music that he had always wanted to through giving a performance at the art gallery of a old friend in Copenhagen, Minghao breaks down in front of Mingyu over knowing that Jeonghan is in love with Joshua again, and, after Christine-Elena picks them up and dusts them off, Minghao chats with Wonwoo before Christine-Elena's parents announce that the wedding is organized ahead of schedule

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The wedding is the next chapter, I promise!

"Woosung, what is this?" Wonwoo asked as he and Woosung walked into a art gallery on the West side of the city, but, the art gallery built into a world-war-two era munitions factory with gleaming shark-tooth peaked roofing and mentions of spray-paint graffitti - vandalism - with dirty footpaths outside. 

"It's incredible, trust me." Woosung kept an arm around Wonwoo's waist as they ascended the concrete steps up to the front door which Woosung un-locked with a key. 

Both of them had woken up very early that morning, just before six while everyone was still asleep. Both Wonwoo and Woosung knew that their tossing and turning and quiet conversation would ruin everyone else's sleep, so, they got up and Woosung told Wonwoo that he knew of somewhere to go. 

Polish concrete floors, white walls and ceilings with skylights looking out to the morning Danish dawn outside, pink and gold and soft blue, made the light come in and gracefully illuminate everything else, otherwise simple and somewhat colourless. The wide factory floors had large paintings every few meters in continual straight lines around the angles of the architecture.

"There's someone for you to meet in a few minutes." Woosung explained to Wonwoo. "Don't worry, he's a nice bloke."

Wonwoo looked down at his boots, jeans, and his black t-shirt with the black jumper over the top. "Is this a business thing?" He asked.

"No." Woosung shook his head. 

"Is he the owner of this gallery?" Wonwoo tried.

"No, his wife Estella owns this." Woosung gestured about. He smiled. "Don't worry, this is something else, a nice something else, a surprise." Woosung put an arm around Wonwoo's shoulders and kissed his cheek. "Wouldn't do you any harm."

"This?" Wonwoo said.

"No, me, I -" Woosung looked at Wonwoo before kissing him. "Christ, if this goes on we'll have to drag the bed up to one of the vacant rooms or you'll just have to make me wait for another couple of weeks."

Wonwoo smiled, his fingers wrapping in the lapels of Woosung's navy wool-fibre coat. "Yes, slave." 

Woosung laughed. "Oh, really?"

Wonwoo nodded, smiling. 

Woosung stroked his fingertips through Wonwoo's hair. Wonwoo's eyes slipped closed behind his glasses.

The screech of car breaks sounded outside the gallery.

"Ah, yes, there's Benedict." Woosung said, moving away slightly from Wonwoo. 

A few moments later, one of the most good-looking men Wonwoo had ever seen, apart from Woosung, entered the gallery. A betrayal to Woosung, Wonwoo knew definitely that it would hurt him badly if he were to ever know, but, this new man, Benedict, made Wonwoo's heart race. He was very tall with strong muscle that came from being a healthy, well-exercised man without gym-pulsed and vein-popped arms and legs that were like hams. He had yellow-blonde Dansk hair that was combed back and oiled with a masculinely handsome and old-world European-Serbian angular boned ovular face with thin lips, a straight, sharp nose, close-set upcurved grey-blue eyes and thin straight eyebrows, a greyer, duller edge of them than his hair-colour. He was smooth-shaven and in a mid-grey suit of tailored trousers and waistcoat with a dark emerald-blue tie, brown leather shoes, and a collared shirt. Wonwoo's head came to Benedict's shoulder, and, he got the same peculiar sort of thrill of looking up at his face the way he did with Mingyu sometimes. 

"God morgen, Jeon Wonwoo, hvordan har du det," Benedict greeted Wonwoo in Dansk and shook his hand with both of his strong, rough, long-fingered ones, making Wonwoo feel weak at the touch. Benedict then slipped his hands into his pockets and observed Wonwoo intently. Wonwoo shyly smiled. Woosung put an arm around his waist but Wonwoo didn't feel it.

"Woosung tells me that you sing."

-

Jeonghan woke up to Seungcheol sneezing into his hair.

Jeonghan's yell of "Fuck!" woke everyone else up. It was then nine-thirty, so, it was partially acceptable.

"What, sorry!" Seungcheol tried to smooth things over with a scowling Jeonghan. "You were on my fucking arm and had your leg over me, I couldn't move an inch!"

"Oo-er." Minghao, Jihoon, Junhui and Mingyu went.

Seungcheol violently gave them the v's on both hands.

Jeonghan chuckled softly behind Seungcheol's back. "Whatever." He shrugged before wrapping an arm around Seungcheol's neck and licking a stripe up his face.

The Emporium's ballroom was inundated with a huge chorus of "Woah!"

"Pagan greeting, isn't it, Chan?" Jeonghan looked down to Chan and Christine-Elena.

"Only if you fuck first." Christine-Elena explain, and, with that, she pulled her singlet over her head to begin getting dressed, and, now, it was not only just Chan who had born sight to her massive pale breasts...with their tattooed nipples...

Everyone ran out of the ballroom as fast as they could. 

"Oh, shit it." Christine-Elena looked down at her breasts. "I forgot the wash it off."

Unbeknowest to anyone except Chan, Christine-Elena had a on-off again condition where her breasts and nipples ached and then weeped or became harsh and red and angry until they bleed due to a excemza condition she inherited from her Mother that spread primarily on her body to around her arms, her chest, her breasts, her hips, her hands, her back and her scalp. The iodine cream she had to apply a few times a week killed the bacteria in the exsema for the sole purpose to she could have half-nice breasts, not that that bothered Chan very much, loving her more than enough that he didn't mind if she had funny-looking breasts.

"Are they sore?" Chan peered down at them. Christine-Elena touched them gingerly.

"Try to get them nice before wedding day." She gruffly told him.

"No offence love but not a great deal happens to them on wedding days." Chan gestured. 

Christine-Elena held her arms out for a cuddle.

Chan just settled them both back down to go to bed, and, insisted that Christine-Elena kept her top off. It was all smudged with the cream on the inside anyway.\par  
What Chan didn't think about was that his chest was going to get smothered in her cream too.

"Can I ask you something?" Chan quickly said to his wife-to-ve.

"Yeah." Said woman nodded.

"When are we actually getting married?" He asked.

"Mum and Dad call us in four days to tell us everything is ready for us to come." Christine-Elena smiled at him.

"Oh, I see, okay." Chan nodded, wondering just how it was that Christine-Elena could trust her family so much to organize the wedding completely by themselves.

-

"Look, you, come here, I need a word." Minghao pulled on the edge of Mingyu's sleeve as he went down the hall, pulling him into the bathroom.

"Oy, oy, don't stretch the fabric."

"I need you to tell me if you've noticed anything."

"Ok."

"Jeonghan's being a moody bitch, quiet then sad then all hostile, he went through Joshua's case the other day, fucked around with something I wrote for him ages back. Then, Vernon found out from Christine-Elena that when she bought up Jeonghan being at the wedding Joshua fainted - actually fainted, dead out of it - and I didn't say anything because I knew it'd cause and issue but Jeonghan pushed me into the canal." Minghao told Mingyu in about just the one breath. "Yes, I was standing close to the edge, but, he shoved me in."

"...Shit." Mingyu barely managed.

"So, d'you think we have an issue?" Minghao snapped his fingers impatiently in front of Mingyu.

"Uh...well, it doesn't sound right." Mingyu stumbled, his mind going a hundred million miles an hour, but, even at that, Minghao was already ahead of him, going off and forming like a Winter thundercloud, cold and biting and harsh and upset.

"And that's -"

"And you're not going to do a thing - anything - about it because if you do or anything it will ruin Chan's wedding. Nevermind Chrissie, it will ruin Chan's wedding because everyone will have to have a smash-up at the ceremony, understand?" Mingyu cut through Minghao.

Minghao stared at him blankly, before, horrifyingly, tears began to well on the edges of his eyes.

"Oh, no, no, don't do that, no, shh." Mingyu wrapped his arms around Minghao and thought back to all the times that Minghao used to kiss him. 

-

"Do anything for me." Benedict gestured to Wonwoo lightly. Wonwoo, Woosung and Benedict were back at he and his wife's Georgian-era cream-stone residence in inner Copenhagen, and, the two older men sat on one divan with a coffee-table from the Art-Deco era between them while Wonwoo sat on a second divan opposite, trying not to be smaller than he already was. Wonwoo had learned that Benedict was forty-three years old, and, that was another feature about the man that made Wonwoo weak. He had beautiful natural skin, no sign of alcohol wearing him down or the years clawing at him, lining him. He was just perfect. There was the faintest, faintest line beneath his undereyes when he smiled or a certain soft expression came onto his face, and, it send a all-too-pleasant heat down to Wonwoo's abdomen. 

He hadn't been that turned on since Sylvia had died.

Wonwoo thought to himself if the other's used her death as a marker, a period of time in all of their relationships, their own individual lives. Before Sylvia died, and, after Sylvia died.

Wonwoo did.

"I, I, when I was younger

I, I, should have known better..." Wonwoo sang deeply and lifting, the sound arcing through the air in a way that demanded attention, chorused and beautiful.

"And I can't feel no remorse and you don't feel nothing back..."

Wonwoo witnessed a glowing depth erupt in both Benedict and Woosung's eyes.

"I, I, got a new girlfriend

She feels like he's on top

And I don't feel no remorse

And you can't see past my blinders..."

"I want you to sing for my wife's gallery, a show a day after the wedding of your friends Chan and Christine-Elena." Benedict told Wonwoo.

Wonwoo nearly keeled over sideways on the couch.

-

Mingyu sat in the bathtub with Minghao, their legs hanging over the edge of the tub, both in it lengthways.

Minghao's eyes were reddened and swallowed, and, his swallowed against his dry, sandpaper like throat.

"Josh won't leave you for him." Mingyu told Minghao. "They had their shot at that, and, it never worked, no matter how many times they tried it."

"And looked how many times they tried it?" Minghao's head twisted numbly around to look at Mingyu. "What if they try it again?"

"Joshua will always love you." Mingyu said, quietly thinking in the back of his head that even if Jeonghan and Joshua went at it again - he couldn't stop that in any form of universe, no matter what - that was it. Joshua would always love Minghao. He could be laying with Jeonghan but he'd be thinking about Minghao, needing him, not ever not needing him. "You..."

Minghao's mouth twisted down into a crooked, saddened shape. 

Mingyu reached out and stroked the top of his head.

-

Wonwoo hadn't realized that we had gone to sleep in the sitting room of Benedict's home as he woke up from a dream. He was asleep on one of the dark-brown leather divans in the pale neo-modernist art deco sitting room.

But what didn't disconcert him was the dream or where he was now asleep, but, the thought to himself of why he had thought of Jeonghan and Joshua's faces. 

Wonwoo then tried to think of the song in his head. He couldn't work it out.

As a result of him still appearing to be asleep, Benedict and Woosung talked amongst themselves freely.

"Is he good in bed being so young?" Benedict asked, drinking coffee on a balcony over-looking the midsummer city with Woosung.

Woosung snorted a soft laugh, drinking a coffee, too. "I notice that comment on the end."

"Can you abide it?" Benedict looked at him.

"Hm." Woosung shrugged mildly. "I'm not answering that for the sole reason that it degrades him."

"See, you are a good man." Benedict's mouth upturned slightly.

"Am I?" Woosung looked at him.

"Is he a good man?" Benedict asked of Wonwoo.

"..." Woosung opened his mouth shut, or some reason, no words came out. 

Wonwoo listened.

"Yes."

Why the hesitation? Wonwoo couldn't help but think to himself.

-

"So what do I do?" Minghao asked Mingyu.

"Don't think about it." Mingyu told him  
"Really?"

"Yeah. The moment Josh sense's something's wrong, it'll make him weak." Mingyu nodded.

"How do you know that?" Minghao asked.

"We've all been mates with each other for five years, Hao, you sort of pick up on things." Mingyu smiled slightly, crookedly.

"I want this to be forever." Minghao whispered of he and Joshua.

"'Ey, fellas, the fuck you doin' in there? No shit and cum on my things, please!" Christine-Elena knocked on the bathroom door only for it to swing open. She looked at the two of them in the bath, and, both Mingyu and Minghao looked back at her.

"I think that you'll find the secret of a long-lasting gay relationship is that good sex means clean arse?" Mingyu commented.

Minghao snorted a laugh, covering his face with his hands and Christine-Elena grinned wickedly, resting her hands on her large-boned teapot-shaped hips; she was wearing a pale pinky-cream linen tie-waist skirt with a thigh slit nearly all the way up to her hip on the left side and a cotton singlet with three little buttons beneath the low neckline in a grey tone. 

"You are sad." She looked to Minghao. Before Minghao could answer, she tutted quite violently. "I fix your love - no, shit, no, heart, I - ah, fuck off, boy, come to me." She fetched both Minghao and Mingyu out of the bath, a couple of bracelets she wore on her left wrist jingling. "We go out." 

-

"Is there any in here that your wife has done?" Wonwoo asked Benedict of the portraits that hung in the gallery. Woosung and Benedict had made the decision to go out for lunch, so, Wonwoo had come with them. 

"No." Benedict answered. "She's a strange woman."

Woosung snorted a soft laugh. "What he means to say is that if she displayed her own paintings in a building she owns that people pay entry in to to specifically see the paintings of another, it would be faceoutious to expect them faun over hers."

"She's a very good painter, I tell her that it would be useful exercise to gain attention for a decade, now." Benedict hummed mildly.

Wonwoo knew if probably shouldn't have said it, but, he couldn't help himself. He knew either way that he'd regret it if he didn't say a thing.

"Were you two together once?" Wonwoo asked.

Benedict, having a drink of water from a small glass on their table just missed out on choking on it as he laughed and Woosung's face flushed a peculiar colour, and, his eyes became overbright for a few moments.

"Oh dear." Benedict grinned broadly at Woosung.

Wonwoo looked at Woosung.

Woosung looked at Wonwoo.

"I can explain everything." Woosung hurriedly said, patting Wonwoo's knee beneath the table.

Benedict burst out laughing. 

"I like this one, I should take him off of you." Benedict said of Wonwoo to Woosung.

Wonwoo went bright red.

"I don't think so." Woosung remarked.

"What do you think?" Benedict's handsome Serbian-European face regarded Wonwoo, his legs crossed, one arm over the back of his chair and the second chair beside him in the restaurant, the three of them sitting at a table that back on to a wall with wall-seating, that side taken by Wonwoo and Woosung. 

"I don't think you should ask me that." Wonwoo answered.

That put an end to that.

"Fuck!"

Wonwoo and Woosung looked at each other before bending over the table to look at the restaurants door.

Minghao, Mingyu and Christine-Elena came in - her right side to the waist practically on show to everyone in a tie-waist dress - and it appeared that she had whacked her ankle on the ankle of a waiter who had tried to scoot out of her way as Minghao had opened the door and not the waiter.

Christine-Elena asked the waiter if he was alright just as Mingyu called out, "So that's where you vanished to!" over at Wonwoo and Woosung. 

"Oh my God." Wonwoo sunk back into his seat as Woosung, ever the adult, got up to handle things.

"You know them?" Benedict remarked.\par  
"Those two are close friends of mine and the reason why we are in Denmark is for her wedding - the girl is getting married to another one of our mates." Wonwoo explained.

Minghao, Mingyu and Christine-Elena took the table next to them. Woosung introduced all of them to Benedict, and, Wonwoo thought that Minghao looked very tired.

"Hey." Wonwoo caught Minghao's attention.

"Hm?" Minghao raised an eyebrow slightly. 

"Do you need a smoke, you look awful?"

Minghao smiled a bit. "Yeah." He excused himself from Christine-Elena, and, as he and Wonwoo left, he glanced back to see her beginning to talk easily with Benedict.

Minghao stood outside beneath the restaurant's retounda over the footpath, lighting up a cigarette with Wonwoo. 

"Are you alright?" Wonwoo asked.

"Yeah, why you ask that?" Minghao peered at him, rolling his cigarette between his fingers, the tip smoking softly, trendles rising up above he and Wonwoo's heads, pooling beneath the red-silk fabric of the retounda like a cloud. 

"You just look tired."

"We're right, Woo." Minghao tipped his head back for a few moments, closing his eyes.

"Hey, cutie." Wonwoo's eyes widened and Minghao's head snapped forward as a girl smiled and waved at them, walking by with her girlfriends in her arms, having a nice day out shopping.

"Whose that other guy?" Minghao asked of Benedict.

Wonwoo explained.

"Jeez, Woo." Minghao grinned at him. "You've got it down." His lips sucked in the cigarette smoke, and, Wonwoo wondered how sucking back on poison was so natural, so effortless to Minghao.

-

By the time that all of them arrived back at the Emporium later that day, well into the night, Vernon was running about like a headless chicken with the phone.

"The wedding's come early." He panted as he caught the formerly missing wedding party. "It's tomorrow. We've got to pack up and get on the train within the next hour to get to the harbour."

"What?" Wonwoo looked at Vernon.

"Yeah, baby, to get to North Zealand." Christine-Elena said.

"New Zealand?" Mingyu corrected her.

"Fuckin' idiot!" Christine-Elena swiped at Mingyu's head. "Chan and I get the married in Northen Zealand which New Zealand named after, stupid fuckin' man."

"Did you know -" Woosung began, looking at Christine-Elena.

"Mum and Dad do fix things for wedding, not my fault." She held up her hands in surrender. "But Vernon is right, we get on the train to the harbour then on boat to where Mum and Dad and Druid is."


	52. I'LL ALWAYS LOVE YOU PART ONE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chan and Christine-Elena get married <3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to do this titled name with the chapter number for this chapter and for the second, due to much of the context that is within this chapter and the next: Joshua and Minghao coming to terms with things, Jeonghan's on-going resurgence of love for Joshua, Wonwoo and Woosung's relationship, Jihoon moving on after Madeleine and continue to live life with his dangerous heart condition, Chan marrying Christine-Elena, Chan fighting with his parents who can't come to terms with the future their beloved child has embarked on. This chapter and the next really encompasses something which pays heed to those four words - OH! And I should add - NOTHING TO DO WITH FUCKING WHITNEY USELESS HOUSTEN!!!! That line of thought actually came from this: Don't Worry by The 1975 ft. Tim Healy from their album, Notes On A Conditional Form. It's the final loving, cooing lines of that song, and, it's a song between friends, a son between father and son, it's the entire universe of love and devotion packed into one broad sense of hope and future and misery and growth and love and youth and - this is why we have this

"So, when's it actually happening?" Soonyoung checked with Jihoon. It was half-ten. "Morning - like in ten minutes - or afternoon or -"

"Chan and Chrissie are getting married at eight in the evening."

"That's a bit late." Soonyoung commented after a pause.

"Marrying under starry skies, it's romantic." Jihoon smiled.

All of them except Christine-Elena had stayed in a beautiful hotel on the island of Northern Zealand the previous night after getting off the evening train at quarter to nine at night and then the boat over which took an hour in itself. Only as the sun had risen at Northern Zealand truly shown it's Scandinavian beauty to the boys. A dozen photographs had been taken out of windows, and, Jihoon and Soonyoung were sitting outside in the pretty garden of the hotel, all freshly mown lawn and peony blossoms curving up white-washed mud-brick walls to orange-tiled rooves and other guests with small children and babes-in-arms further up the lawn with hotel breakfasts in the form of picnics. The hotel was a old-world building on a 14th century estate surrounded by forests and a moat. It was stunning, and, Jihoon had previously commented that he ought to buy a place like this or build on like it with some of his money back in Korea; move out of dirty, congested, over-populated Seoul up to the Gyreonsang mountains or something where Wonwoo's parents were. As Soonyoung thought about it more, an evening wedding was better planned; it had given them time to sleep in to about nine, and, well, Soonyoung still wasn't an expert on weddings but it always seemed that the bride took ages to get ready. Like, hours and hours and hours to get ready.

"I'll bring a jacket." Soonyoung gazed at Jihoon. Soonyoung wondered what Jihoon was thinking.

"Perfect day for a wedding." Jihoon grinned. 

"I'm a bit nervous." Soonyoung admitted. "I know it sounds stupid but I've never been to a Pagan wedding before."

Jihoon laughed. "Neither has Channie." Jihoon remarked.

"Oh, God, yeah - wait, wait, wait, hang on." Soonyoung held up his hands. "He never had a Stag party."

"I expect he's delighted." Jihoon commented.

"How the FUCK did we forget that?!" Soonyoung hissed under his breath.

"Because the wedding came two, three days early?" Jihoon raised an eyebrow. 

"But, I - oh!" Soonyoung through his hands up in the air. "And I spent the whole trip on the plane over here plotting the fucking thing!"

"Tell me about it." Jihoon said.

So Soonyoung did.

Jihoon was in stitches the whole way through. 

He wiped a tear from his eye as he breathed heavily. "Love the way your brain works, sometimes." He hiccuped, laughing even more.

"It's not that bad." Soonyoung crossed his arms, speaking with emphasis.

"It's absolutely fucking apalling!" Jihoon covered his face with his hands briefly.

"How many times have I saved you from having a heart attack?" Soonyoung frowned.

Jihoon laid a hand on Soonyoung's crossed arms. "Too many times." Jihoon said softly.

Soonyoung melted. "Okie." He leant into Jihoon's side, half-squashing the smaller man.

But, so looking forward was Jihoon to Chan's wedding that he was in a brilliant mood, and, on top of soon becoming two million pounds richer, he didn't mind getting cuddled by Soonyoung in blatant public view at all.

-

"Is this like a Christian wedding?" Jeonghan asked Chan.

"What is?" Chan said. Both Jeonghan and Seungcheol were in his room and picking out what he would be wearing.

"Is no one allowed to see the bride until -" Jeonghan's hands moved loosely.

"No, no, no." Chan shook his head. "But I want a surprise; you lot can go up and see her, no problem, just don't go blabbing and ruin it for me."

Jeonghan and Seungcheol promised that they wouldn't.

"Where is she anyway?" Seungcheol questioned.

"With her Mum and Dad." Chan answered.

"And where are they?" Jeonghan raised his eyebrows.

"God knows." Chan shrugged.

Jeonghan and Seungcheol soon left as Chan's parents came in to see him.

"Is it just me or does it feel kinda pointless that they're here?" Jeonghan remarked to Seungcheol quietly down the hall, thumbing his nose. "Like, the actual wedding that they would do Chan can't have them doing because they won't let him marry Chrissie, so -"

"Yeah, you're right." Seungcheol agreed. "We have to be Chan's Mum and Dad because the actual Mum and Dad are being stupid."

"I hope they don't change his clothes." Jeonghan muttered. 

"Yeah, we've got him looking nice." Seungcheol crossed his arms.

"Right, come on, let's go." Jeonghan grabbed Seungcheol's elbow. "Let's go and find the bride -"

"Tall, Pagan and wise!" Seungcheol half sung.

Jeonghan laughed.

-

"You sure you won't be coming?" Minghao stroked Joshua's hair behind his ear tenderly. They were in their own rooms together; each hotel room offered two long and wide rectangular rooms, one with a minute butler's pantry that held a kettle and a sink with a small sitting room, and, then, the bedroom and it's en suite bathroom. Joshua and Minghao were sitting together in the bay window of the sitting room, looking down two stories below at 

Joshua nodded, looking down at the ground. "I'm sorry. I feel really awful, but, I'm sorry, I just can't."

"It's ok." Minghao pressed his mouth against Joshua's forehead. "Channie and Christine-Elena say it's ok, they understand, but you come to the party, later, right? Please?"

Joshua nodded. Repulsion surged from his stomach up his throat. He gritted his teeth. "I'll try." He whispered in a half-promise, and, he knew whether it was just him that could see the fear underlying within him, or, if Minghao could see it too. 

"I'll tell you all about it." Minghao wrapped an arm around Joshua.

"No, please don't." Joshua wrapped his arms around Minghao's back and leant his head against Minghao's shoulder. "I don't want to know anything about it. Just please don't tell me, I don't want to hear it, Hao."

Minghao held Joshua tighter against him. 

"Why are you so against this?" Minghao asked him.

"It repulses me, it disgusts me." Joshua lowly confessed after a long period of silence.

Minghao felt himself going still. As he thought about it later, he didn't know why he said it. "Is that the same for Sylvia, too?" He asked. "Because she was who she was?"

And Joshua also wondered later too why he said what he did. Joshua knew that something inside him broke as he let the worst part of him, who his parents tried to raise him to be, came out. Virtually said that Christine-Elena and Chan disgusted him, repulsed him. Something was so savage, not wanting to suffer from the sickness and the regret that would plague him afterwards. Fix it as quick as he could. Fix the fuck-up. Fix the Christianity. Tell the Christianity to go and fuck itself.

"I liked Sylvia." Joshua told Minghao. "I wanted her. I fell for her and then she died. The other's don't know, except Jeonghan."

"....When did you tell him?" Minghao barely whispered. Dull, aching, foggy silence filled up his body, his sense of reality, the sense of Joshua's weight of body against his, on his. 

"The party for you when you came back from Wales." Joshua told him. "That night."

Minghao detached himself from Joshua and detached Joshua from around him. Joshua watched sadly, painfully, as Minghao left the room.

Joshua knew it hadn't worked. What he had meant, whatever he had meant...it just hadn't worked.

Internally, Joshua was now even more decided against going to Chan and Christine-Elena's wedding. No way was he going to be amongst the heathenism, the paganism, that repulsive, sub-human, degenerate filth that the insane freaks went on with. They needed a psychiatric ward, not a wedding. 

-

"Core of my heart..."

Mingyu laughed. Woosung - when in a very jolly mood appeared to become rather British - danced Wonwoo around their room, Wonwoo's hair and skin still mildly damp from the shower, fully dressed. Wonwoo blushed as Woosung kissed his cheek.

Soonyoung knocked on the door a few moments later and Mingyu let him in.

"What are you going to sing at Benedict's?" Mingyu asked Wonwoo.

"Still thinking." Wonwoo hummed.

"Make sure it's something the band can play." Mingyu noted, trying to help.

"Oh, no, it'll be original." Wonwoo and Woosung said. "I've got this sheet music I've already sent off but I've got three sets of lyrics for the sheet music so I'm still thinking about which one I want to do."

"What does vers. one sound like?" Soonyoung asked.

"Don't start dancing and break something." Wonwoo warned him.

"You're dancing." Soonyoung pointed out.

"I'm being nice and gentle." Woosung remarked. Wonwoo considered Woosung for a moment and how that Woosung - twenty years older than everyone else - had fitted in perfectly fine without ever intruding, and, how, everyone was used to be presence, and he being Wonwoo's other half.

"I can be nice and gentle." Soonyoung stood up with an emphasis on "I", and, true to his word, began to dance slow and calmly and gently. Woosung laughed. Wonwoo gave in.

"Keep your tone warm

And keep on looking at my eyes..." Wonwoo sung effortlessly and deeply, gazing at Woosung as he sung, their dancing losing no steps. Mingyu whistled softly under his breath and Soonyoung listened intently as he moved about around the dancing couple, not interrupting them.

"Mind blown

And I keep overthinking everything that i'm saying..." Wonwoo paused, grinning as Woosung twirled him around and Mingyu applauded it.

"I'm painting you..." Wonwoo's arms wound loosely around Woosung's shoulder's.

"So please don't telephone him

If you're owned and blue

What's the point, babe?"

-

"You look so beautiful, darling."

Christine-Elena closed her eyes, tipping her head back as her Father, Hagen, came around behind her and kissed her forehead. Hagen was a six-foot-seven giant with muscle set into him like solid steel with hair legs, arms and hands with a close fine-shave of pale icy-blonde whiskers with upcurved hooded blue-grey eyes like her own with thick eyebrows. His long hair, usually pulled into a knot secured with a plaited leather strap at the back of his scalp, was now let loose in a dreadlocked tail, inset with stain glass and little wooden beads with pagan symbols and runes and names carved onto them. She was sitting at the 18th Century vanity table that had been gifted to a Grandmother from the period from her Father-in-law, and, the beautiful oak-wood shone as beautifully as it did all those years ago, three-hundred or so odd.

She was in the twelth-century home that her Father's ancestors had built when they had migrated from the Danish coast with an Icelandic wife to Northern Zealand; many things had been changed, designed, replaced, cared for, taken away, and bought in over the last eight hundred years, but, it was still that same home, built in a shape of a church but with a dome-like presence in the sides, like the belly of a urn-horn. Christine-Elena remembered all the tales her Father had told her as a child, carrying her around in a fabric wrap on his chest when she was small and then on his back when she was less small, and, then, as a bigger child, holding his hand and picking up her skirts as he walked her into the sea, and the frothy lip of the Kattegat sea licked up against her knees.

"Your Mother's sisters have gone to get Chan and his tribe." Hagen told her.

Christine-Elena giggled softly as her Father bent down to hug her, rocking her side to side gentle, the side of his face on top of her head. That was what her tribe called Chan and his friends; his tribe. The front sections of her long silvery-blonde hair were thickly plaited and intertwined with Scandinavian marshmallow flower in a crown around her scalp with the rest of her hair falling loose and silky and natural down her back to the small of it. The hand-fasting fabric that was from her Father's family and six hundred years old was delicately and carefully pinned around the upper-middle of her forhead, and, it nearly touched the ground, embroidered with the love-stories of thirty generations, each marriage before the modern years made at fifteen with the birth of a child at sixteen. Christine-Elena used to laugh at how anyone and everyone would have a fit at the knowledge that there were currently five generations of her family running about at once, all her family nearly living to a hundred years of age before death from that old age rather than disease or conditions of the organs.

"I love you so much." Christine-Elena's Father kissed her head.

Christine-Elena's wedding dress was a long-sleeved, crew-necked, floor-length design that fitted her closely until the hips where it became a-line without an extra seam, so beautifully cut. The fabric was the palest, soft oatmeal-grey in tone, and, it was covered in pale-cream embroidery of birds, stars, and the shapes of spirits moving amongst the air, and those that lived within precious human beings. Around her neck was a gold necklace with a single diamond hanging from the tip, and, Christine-Elena's eyes watered. She had on no make-up apart from a slight colour in her eyebrows, vaseline on her eyelashes to make them stand up, pale-pink tint on her lips and foundation to suit her white skin. 

"I feel so happy, Dad." Christine Elena touched her Father's arm. 

Her head turned to the side as Druid Asbjorn entered the bedroom. Druid Asbjorn had been presence at Christine-Elena's birth, and, as a babe-in-arms, he had blessed her, and, along with her Father, the Druid had given her nearly all of her education. He was as much of a fixture in Christine-Elena's life as her blood-family was, and, Chan to be. 

"I told your Father that he was to have a beautiful daughter."

Christine-Elena's eyes fluttered to a close happily as the Druid kissed her cheek, a shorter man at five foot eight compared to her Father's enormity with a small white beard and cheeky blue eyes. The Druid was just entering his mid fifties, but, his skin was still youthful as ever, and, despite a lifetime of that skin amongst the elements, it hadn't left him with damage and blemishes. 

"Where's Mum?" Christine-Elena asked.

"She's gone to get that man of yours." The Druid chuckled.

"Oh, no." Christine-Elena looked between the two most important men in her life as they laughed and hugged her.

-

It had looked like the beginning of a war when five black Range Rover's had pulled at the gates of the hotel and out climbed five men, all blonde, tall, muscled, strong, hooded-eyed, tattooed, rough-skinned handed and Pagan. It was seven 'o' clock, and, by the time they get to the sacred forest where the marriage was to take place, it left forty-five minutes for Chan to gather his courage and formerly meet the rest of the tribe before the ceremony begun. 

"You two go out first with him!" Woosung had shouted at Jeonghan and Seungcheol, pointing to Chan, as the staff in the hotel began to worry and he ran to explain to the manager in the lobby that the hotel grounds weren't going to be burnt to the ground. All of them were dressed in their suits, and, Jeonghan couldn't help but tremble a bit with worry with Seungcheol as they went out to the cars, either side of Chan. 

But, at the first sight of Chan, the Pagan men begin to whoop and cheer, calling out "Annyeonhayseo!", clapping their hands and waving.

"Hello man!" One called out in English.

Jeonghan and Seungcheol relaxed completely as Chan beamed, as happy as a human being could possibly be. 

"WHOSE GETTING MARRIED?!" Chan tipped half back, shaking his head and holding out his arms.

The Pagan men shouted something in Danish before rushing in to pick him up and half hold him. Chan hurriedly introduced Seungcheol and Jeonghan in Danish and evidently explained why it was the two young men and not his parents.

Jeonghan couldn't help but feel his heart swell with pride at Chan's language skills; Danish was definitely much easier to speak than most other languages, with it's song-like, cooing mono-syllable words that weren't as complicated as Mandarin was for example, but, nonetheless, Jeonghan also couldn't help but feel the realism of the situation wash over him like a wave. They were in Denmark, all the way across the world, so Chan could marry this funny, foul-mouthed, big-breasted, big-hearted, big-fisted Scandinavian woman with tumbling messes of silvery-blonde hair and those pretty gap-teeth of hers. The princess of the tribe, in a way. Jeonghan smiled. He looked to Seungcheol as the Pagan men surged towards him, shaking his hand and touching his nose and forehead with their own in greeting, hands snaking around the back of his neck in a gentle manner, knowing that this Korean man was as yet completely unaccostumed to the Indigenous Scandinavian way of life.

Jeonghan looked around in suprise as he felt fingertips touch his hair.

A very, very pretty and plump lady in her late forties with beautiful blue eyes and softly and naturally curling blonde hair piled up loosely onto her head in animal-bone combs with trendles falling around either side of her face with full red lips and a warm, tender expression on her face. She murmured something in the cooing language, and, her fingertips trailing away gently from Jeonghan's hair, she held out her arms for Chan and cuddled him tightly, kissing his cheek.

"Meet me mother-in-law." Chan grinned broadly, straightening his black suit jacket. 

-

As Jihoon, Seokmin and Soonyoung watched Chan trail Jeonghan and Seungcheol outside, the actual M. and Mrs Lee were clearly very frightened and unsure.

"They need to smoke something, calm down." Jihoon rolled up the sleeves of his button-up shirt, feeling too hot, and, Seokmin and Soonyoung berated him for commenting that Chan's parents needed to have their brain fazed for their child's wedding. 

"Hey, it's alright." Woosung went over to the middle-aged couple, and, began to talk to them. Nearly the same age as Chan's parents, he could understand how uneasy and disconcerted they felt, essentially all by themselves in a foreign country, and, honestly, losing a child to a family they had never met. "They're good people. They won't hurt him. You won't get cut off from him or anything. Even though the wedding's here Chan and Christine-Elena are coming back to Korea. Don't panic; it'll be a nice night, a special night. Biggest day of you and Chan's lives." Woosung smiled at them, and, Chan's father stood up straighter and a smile fluttered on Chan's Mother's mouth. She looked very nice in a faerie-floss pink dress with three-quart. bell sleeves and a sunhat of a similar colour with a black ribbon around the crown, and, her husband was similarly well-dressed in his black suit.

"Yes." Chan's Mother nodded. "Yes. It'll be lovely." And pure hope shone in her eyes for the sake of her only child.

-

Everyone left on time, piling into the sparkling clean and gleaming black Range Rovers, air-conditioned and scented, and, each one of the Pagan men, men that Christine-Elena had grown up with, had taken on the task of learning enough Korean language to tell the wedding guests they drove about certain little things at the wedding.

At the very beginning, a Indigenous Scandinavian Vuelie would be performed by a twenty-eight piece choir and a thirty-piece band, and, during that Vuelie, Christine-Elena would be walked to the crown of the aisle by her Father and Mother, and, the same would be done for Chan.

"The lad said what?!" Chan's Father barked when he was told that Jeonghan and Seungcheol were prepared to walk Chan up the aisle if he and his wife couldn't come to consent. "I don't fucking think so!"

"Which bit?" The Danish man asked them, looking in the rear vision mirror. 

Chan's parents were specifically driven in their own car, the first Range Rover, coming on the tradition that traditonally the groom and bride's parents would arrive in their own sleighs, but, or the fourth time in five hundred years, tradition had been tipped on it's head with a marriage outside of the tribes. 

"Our child is getting given away by no one but bloody us!" Chan's Father roared passionately.

The pagan man smiled to himself. Thank God they had reached the decision.

-

All the while, Jeonghan, Seungcheol, Junhui, and Minghao were in the second car with Christine-Elena's Mother, Ase.

"I am Ase." The woman had told them, her named pronounce ah-she. She hadn't realized that the boys hadn't known her name, properly. "I am Chan's mum-to-be." She spoke in English very simply so they could understand as best as they could, not speaking much English, only barely remembering what he had from school, and, what had been introduced to him via Vernon and Joshua. 

"Can I ask you something?" Junhui asked Ase.

"Yes." Ase nodded, smiling.

"Why do you have so many Range Rovers?" Junhui questioned.

Ase laughed, clapping her hands together. "They are the best car in the Earth!" She exclaimed.

"You are the perfect Mum-in-law for Chan." Minghao blessed her.

Ase reached around from the front passenger seat the give him a high five.

-

Chan sat in the passenger seat of the fifth car with Sachihiro, who, was Christine-Elena's favourite man, the favourite boy she had grown up with in Northern Zealand. Chan was glad that Sachihiro was driving him. Sachihiro was to essentially be his brother as he married Christine-Elena. 

"You're the envy of us guys." Sachihiro laughed, clasping Chan's knee. "And your better looking than all of us."

Chan grinned. "Oh, God, I can't believe it's happening."

All it took was one look between he and Sachihiro for them to start shouting and whooping out of pure happiness.

"Feel the adrenaline?" Sachihiro patted Chan's chest.

Chan nodded. "Oh, God, I'm nearly losing it." He tipped his head back against the head-rest of the passenger seat. "By the way, I fucking love this car." He pointed around the interior of the Range Rover.

"Best car in the world." Sachihiro stroked the dashboard tenderly. "Only five for minutes in the car then we see your lady, Channie."

As they drove along the rural Island roads to the sacred forest, the fleet of cars in front carrying all of the people that Chan needed in his life, bar Joshua - Junhui, Soonyoung, Wonwoo, Woosung, Jihoon, Seokmin, Mingyu, Minghao, Seungkwan and Vernon, his parents - and the future to come. 

He thought about Christine-Elena, and the sight of her gap-teethed smile and her messy hair and how she sometimes swore in her sleep.

Chan's eyes grew wet with happiness.

-

"Can this get any more magical?" Seungkwan breathed. The Pagan man of he, Vernon, Soonyoung, Seokmin and Jihoon's third car had the windows down for them, and, with the scent of the forest, of the Scandinavian mid-summer, of the universe above, it created a transcended purification of them all, taking them away from the rest of the world and to a place more special.

"I can't believe how real this is." Even Jihoon was entrance, letting the outside passing air flutter his hair slightly, his eyes closed dreamily. 

"We're all going to remember this for the rest of our lives." Vernon perfectly attested to the time around them.

-

Despite the days been long on the Scandinavian island, the sun had to go down at some point, but, the sight that met the boys eyes as they arrived at the sacred forest, a beautiful mile square acerage of ancient Elm, Oak, Acorn, Pine, and Ash trees, above was more ethereal than any day sky could give.

The night sky was a illuminated navy-blue darkness with hundreds of millions of icy stars shining gloriously and individually, seeming to work around in the shape of a circle in the sky. 

They all cheered as Chan got out of the fifth Range Rover and straightened his jacket. He was wearing a three-piece suit with a peony bloom picked from one of the climbers at the hotel tucked into the handkerchief socket on his jacket, and, suddenly, Chan's parents seemed so much at ease at the sight of their child that postively glowed.

The pagan men and Ase promptly lit lanterns that had been carried in the boots of the Range Rover's, and, tucking everyone in around them, they began the walk into the forest, Sachihiro formerlly introduced to them all by Chan before Chan told them that the men said it was about a two hundred meter walk into the forest but it hadn't rain for a few days so no one had to worry about going up to their knees in a muddy hole. 

"Do you think the Korean Government really understood what they were letting into the country?" Jeonghan nodded his head in the direction of Ase.

"Hyundai car company wants who it wants to run it." Seungcheol shrugged again.

Jeonghan chuckled. He and Seungcheol were both wearing suits as everyone else was, but, Jeonghan couldn't help but wondering if they were a bit over-dressed for a Pagan wedding. All of the men were in linen folk shirts and jeans or moleskin trousers tucked into native boots or tradesman's soles with leather waistcoats undone and loose around their being, or, not at all.

Only a extremely short time later, they had arrived at the sacred sight.

They were met with one of the most extroadinairy sights of their lives. In the centre of the forest was a half-moon copse of rising and diamond-flecked granite boulders from the ground with swathes of dark green linen rugs and mats with cushions covering the forest ground with fey-lights and lanterns strung everywhere; the boys soon realized that it was the guest seating, and, that, amongst the rising granite boulders from the flesh of the Earth was a huge natural granite slab with a slight curve naturally risen out of the ground that had a massive whole cut into it...

It made what seemed to be a swimming pool - but one the size of a small lake - in the sense of the world that the Korean guests had come from.

What they didn't realize was that their perception of a swimming pool was in fact a ninth-century digging into what lay beneath as a natural spring beneath the rocks of what was the valley geographically of the forest. 

The setting was huge. The water pool in the rocks was easily the size of a Seoul city apartment block with yet another half put onto it, and, then, the altar built before the boulders in their half-moon symmetry stretched width-ways for an acre by itself. 

And if their surroundings weren't enough of a shock, there was then the wedding guests.

There was more than five hundred people, and, at the altar, stood a white-haired man in white robes edged with dark red, green and gold embroidery with a giant of a man - also white-blonde - beside him in a pale oatmeal linen shirt and moleskin trousers tucked into big dark-brown boots with a leather waistcoat, and, then, a distinctly pre-raphelite looking but nonetheless entrancing creature in a pale pink gown with sleeves that touched the floor with her skirt and a gentle v-neck on the sidelines. 

"Go to Druid." Ase pointed Jeonghan and Seungcheol.to Asbjorn. "Don't be scared. I'll look after Chan's Mum and Dad. Don't worry. We aren't German, we won't kill you, babies."

Once having walked over, Jeonghan and Seungcheol gawped at Christine-Elena's Father, Hagen. The man spoke perfect Korean, and, as a result, had told all them how, basically, this was the most un-Scandinavian Pagan wedding ever held for the sole purpose that they had cut out most of the traditions and requirements so that Chan wouldn't be terrified out of his wits. Christine-Elena had still taken part in the bride traditions - one which involved bathing in a special house to strip her of her maiden status and have her wedding make-up, hair and clothes prepared by her Mother and married women of her tribe - and how Chan had avoided drinking water with Christine-Elena's blood in it and having to fight Hagen and the good-as-a-brother Sachihiro in a full-on and utterly proper sword-fight as a proof of masculinity. 

"My daughter tells me her man is a strong man but Woosung tell me that my daughter's man is nonetheless not a Scandi man or a Pagan man." Hagen grinned. 

Seungcheol tentiavely asked Hagen if he could properly meet Chan's parents another time, and not terrify them more than they already were.

Hagen let out a deep laugh with Asbjorn, the Druid, or, as he was referred to within the tribe, a Gothi. Christine-Elena had told them all about "Chan's tribe" relationship with the late Sylvia Jenkins, adopted by the Welsh Pagans, and, as a result, Seungcheol and Jeonghan knew for certain fact that it automatically made Christine-Elena's family and other blood warm to them, even though their minute experience of Welsh culture was nothing compared to Scandinavian.

They were two seperate races after all. 

"It's alright for them to be scared." Hagen said. "They love their child. I respect them."

Seungcheol and Jeonghan were left speechless by that.

"So, what do we have to do, again?" Jeonghan checked quickly.

Before Hagen could answer them,Sachihiro rushed over and told Jeonghan and Seungcheol that they didn't have to walk Chan down the aisle, his parents had come around. 

Just as Jeonghan went to fouly swear over the matter, all five hundred of the Scandinavian tribe rose to their feet, and, with their movement, the Gothi rose his arms into the air, and, the sound of drum-beats and human vocalizing song began to fill the air. The twenty-eight people choir stood up to their hips in the lake amongst the rocks, and, the band with their instruments were positioned as close as they could be to the water on the rock ledge but without getting wet.

"Go to the front!" Sachihiro shooed Seungcheol and Jeonghan away. "Chrissie has arrived, everything is starting! I need to put Chan's runes on, I've only got twenty seconds!"

The wedding was beginning.

Jeonghan and Seungcheol went over and took standing positions by Jihoon and Minghao, as the music began to swell.

Jihoon couldn't help his eyes drifting closed to the beautiful native music. A deeper-voiced part of the female choir sung predominately, and, the hundreds of Pagan wedding guests clapped their hands in time. Woosung nudged at them all to do the same, and, it was leaving them all breathless. They had no idea what to do, they had no idea what was going on, and, it was absolutely fucking brilliant.

"Na na

A-yeah

na-ah

Na ah ya yanuwah

Na na

A-yeah

na-ah

Nah ah ya yanuwah..."

A higher-toned choral melody came into the play, and, suddenly, even the Pagan wedding guests had their breath taken away.

Her Mother and her Father holding each of her elbow and hands, Christine-Elena made her way up the aisle, a slow step at the time, one after another.

"Doesn't she looked beautiful?" Minghao breathed to Seungcheol who hurriedly nodded agreement. 

And, beautiful Christine-Elena did looked.

"NA NA 

A-YEAH

NAH AH

NAH AH YA YANUWAH!"

The choir suddenly sung to the point of a powerhouse roar, a cry, as Christine-Elena made it to the top of the aisle with her parents who kissed her cheeks and touched her head before surrendering her to Asbjorn who came to hold her hands, talking to her softly for a few moments, and, in a way that made the conregation that still clapped to the beat emit soft "aw's", he wiped a tear from beneath one of her eyes.

Another minute of the Indigenous Vuelie played, and, then, the higher choral melody began again.

This time, it was Chan.

"SCANDI-HANGUL SEX GOD!" Seokmin, Seungkwan and Soonyoung promptly declared it, whooping and cheering, and, within a heartbeat, Seungcheol thought that they would all be murdered, but, Christine-Elena's tribe did exactly as the boys had done, cheering and whooping for the sight of Chan.

He was stripped, now just in his trousers, waiscoat and jacket, no shoes, socks, shirt or tye with Indigenous runes painted in black all over his dark-almond tone skin, his face, his neck, his chest, his ribs, his hands, his feet. His hair had clearly been mussed up, and, with one of the brightest smiles ever smiled by a human being, Chan began his ascent up the aisle, arm in arm with his teary-eyed Mother, and, side by side with his Dad, strong and unbreaking, a force to be reckoned with even if his stomach was getting a touch pauchy.

Christine-Elena upon sight of her husband to be - her hands had flown to her mouth, but, no one had missed her smile.

It was love. 

It was so obvious how in love the two of them were with each other.

"Oh my God." Seokmin murmured breathily. "It's actually happening!"

As Chan came to the top of the aisle, his parents falling away to sit down either side of Hagen and Ase who comforted them and congratulated them, a ball of fire erupted into the air above and around the anicent sacred boulders, and, the choir screamed melodically and breathtakingly into the air to the stars above which begin to turn on their axis, the most dazzling spectacle for the night the wedding chosen to be was the night that the sun emitted a lunar vaporation of it's outer atmosphere.

"NA NA 

A-YEAH

NAH AH

NAH AH YA YANUWAH!"

The wedding ceremony took half an hour, and, as it carried on with it's vows, promises, speeches, confessions and ruling, the choi continued to half and sing beautifully, the deeper part of the choir working in a concrete formation, the higher retired. 

The boys watched as the handfasting fabric was unpinned from around Christine-Elena's head by her Father, and, the tears that rolled down her face as her Father's bloodline ended as the fabric was wrapped around she and Chan's ajoined hands, marrying them, bonding them, for the rest of their lives and for when they weren't on the Earth, anymore.

Chan's heart hurt in his chest as the Gothi, Asbjorn, spoke in Danish, making the vow of the religion and the Gods above. Never before when he first met Christine-Elena had he ever been able to image the depth and the other-wordly presence about her as she played the electric guitar in her knickers on the kitchen island in Minghao's house nearly a year ago. Never before had he ever been able to imagine the purity and the pain of how much she would have to give up depsite her tribes best efforts, in her love for him, in bounding her life to his for all of his life. Chan's eyes grew wet.

No one else on Earth would sacrifice so much of their world and the thousands of years behind it as she had for him, and would continue to do for the rest of their lives.

"I'll always love you." Chan told her.

When Christine-Elena and Chan took their first kiss as a married couple, another Indigenous Scandinavian tradition was revealed.

Flame throwing.

Fifteen men in fire-proof mole-skins stood in the lake and threw smouldering lava and flame up into the air, projecting into the sky in a manner of the bursts of fireworks, illuminating the night fiery red's, oranges and yellows, and, as the fire hit the lake surface, the flame shattered into a million pieces and looked like faerie-lights dancing across the surface of the water as the choir started singing again, and, Christine-Elena and Chan held each other very close, talking to each other quietly.

Seokmin, Seungkwan and Soonyoung got teary, Wonwoo and Minghao were silent, and, the others, as soon as the final flame was shattered ethereally onto the night lake water, there was one more traditon to be made. 

Chan picked up his bride, carried her into the deepest part of the lake that he could manage without drowning the two of them, and, he drank water that she cupped up in her hands, brushed against her skin, from the lake.

As they both came out, sopping wet and happy and in love, the Pagan choir began to play a new song, and, in no way was it indigenous.

It was "Accidentally In Love" by Counting Crows.

Everyone rushed towards the married couple, kissing them, holding them, telling them that they loved them. 

"I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love..." The band and the choir of nearly fifty people all together sung.

Chan tipped Christine-Elena back as thought they were dancing the tango and kissed her, her arms entwined around his neck.

The boys got caught up with the Pagans and the Pagans got caught up with the boys. The guests parted like the red sea for Chan and Christine-Elena to begin their descent back down the aisle. They were going out to the shoreline of the island five kilometers away, the Korean guests and the couple to be taken in the cars, but, the rest of the Pagan guests to walk and run, a task that they would easily accomplish. 

The party was now begun.


	53. I'LL ALWAYS LOVE YOU PART TWO

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry, l'll write a proper summary and note tomorrow, I'm absolutely exhausted <3

FIFTY-THREE

No one woke up until one in the afternoon the next day, having been partying until five that morning. They were all crashed, having been taken home by Christine-Elena's tribe and her parents, Ase and Hagen, back to the hotel, but, hardly any of them were in the right rooms. 

For one, in Minghao and Joshua's room was Minghao, Junhui, Seungkwan, Vernon and Mingyu. They had no idea where Joshua or any of the other's were. Minghao had a grimness in him. Joshua hadn't turned up at the wedding, he hadn't wanted to, but then he hadn't turned up at the party, and he had promised Christine-Elena and Chan that he would definitely come to that. "We should all marry pagans." Junhui sprouted up into the air.

"Do we have to marry a Pagan to get a wedding like that?" Seungasked asked.

yep." Minghao nodded.

"Ah, shit, Josh'll kill us." Mingyu rubbed a hand over his face.

They laughed. Mingyu was in bed with Minghao, Junhui was on some cushions on the floor, Vernon had been in the bath-tub but was now laying beside Junhui, and, Seungkwan had been on the couch but had force Minghao to shift in closer to Mingyu so that he could get into bed too.

"I want a wedding like that." Seungkwan said.

"I want a woman like Chrissie." Vernon commented.

"Oh, trust me, no you fucking don't, you need a lot of mettle for that." Minghao scrunched his nose as he rubbed sleep out of his eyes.

"Metal?" Mingyu didn't get it. It wasn't as though they were hungover, because, they hadn't actually drunk that much, surprisingly. Eaten? Far too much. One of the wedding traditions was a feast to top all feasts, and, it had done it a good grace. As soon as the venison, duck, beef, lamb, and goose had come out, having to be held by four Pagan men, everyone was on it like wolves on a fresh kill, and, just as incredibly, some of the men had been on guard with quite genuine hunting rifles in case wolves came in their direction due to the scent of cooking meet, the Island a home to at least three packs.

"No, mettle. Inner strength. Strength for her strength." Minghao moved a hand around vaguely, a touch blind, still waking up. 

"So you have to, like, be a pagan man?" Seungkwan attempted to figure it out.

"Or a Chan." Vernon suggested.

"Yes." Junhui snapped his fingers into a point at Vernon, agreeing.

yes, a chan." Mingyu nodded.

"Absolutely." Minghao mumbled, shaking his head, still out of it.

Junhui giggled. "Oh, god, you should see the state of his neck." He said of Chan.

"What's with his neck?" Seungkwan asked.

"Our favourite pagan girl's put a mark on him." Junhui grinned.

"What?" Seungkwan frowned.

"Like a claiming thing." Minghao gestured vaguely.

"Oh, no way am I getting married to a Pagan if that has to happen to me." Seungkwan waved his hands hurriedly.

Everyone laughed.

Even though the wedding was only last night and there was a warm, basking glow upon them all still from it, there was now a new attention:

Wonwoo's performance at Benedict's gallery at half-ten that night.

That made them all really wake up.

"WE NEED TO GET ON THE FUCKING BOAT AND TRAIN!!!" It begun by Seungkwan shrieking his head off and everyone genuinely paying heed to it. 

And as everyone rushed about like headless chickens, there became two obvious questions asked by them all:

"Do Pagans have honeymoons?" and "Where the fuck is Joshua?"

No one seemed to concerned about Joshua, everyone asking Chan about the possible honeymoon and only Christine-Elena asking about Joshua.

No one gave her an answer about Joshua.

As a result, the newly married woman went mental.

"Cunts!"

She seized Jeonghan and Soonyoung by their throats and shoved them up against a wall in Wonwoo and Woosung's room. "Where is he?" She demanded in a screech. She pulled them back and smacked the helpless beings against the wall. "WHAT YOU DO TO HIM?!"

They found out from Chan why she was so worried.

There was a very high possibility that one of the pagan men had snatched him and he was most likely unconcious in a field somewhere after Chan's parents had let off after a few glasses of wine that there was a Christian-blessed friend of their child's that hadn't turned up to the wedding but would come to the celebration afterwards.

Everyone then began to panic in earnest as Christine-Elena went running out of the hotel, long skirt hitched up around her hips showing how she had no underwear on, and, her equally bra-less breasts nearly flying out of her singlet as she went out to find Joshua before they had to leave the Island back for Copenhagen which was going to take a hell of a long time especially on a Saturday with sea-faring traffic as bad as any land road would have it.

-

Unbeknowest to all of them, Joshua wasn't as missing as much as they thought.

He hadn't been able to sleep any of last night, and, still awake at half-and-five past five in the morning with Minghao still not back in bed beside him yet, Joshua had gathered his shoes and coat and had gone out to walk for as long as he possibly could. It had then been at twenty-past seven when he had had enough and settled beneath some birch trees by the harbour, thinking to himself silently for ages, lost in his own little world until just after eight when, after another very long walk, he came into the village and went to get breakfast, only to realize he had no money and no Danish language skills. 

Joshua couldn't help but wondering just how badly he had fucked things with Minghao. Had telling him about Sylvia to try and relieve the feeling of his own sins hurt him so badly that they couldn't fix themselves from it?

Joshua didn't know.

Even by the time he knew the wedding would be done the previous night, he hadn't been able to drag heavy limbs out of bed. There was Pagans everywhere, and, he didn't want to be near them, around them. He didn't want to be around his friends and his lover having fun with them. It was apalling, it was degrading, it was ridiculous.

Joshua knew he would have given away a part of himself if he had gone.

They would have attacked him, anyway.

Joshua had nearly finished walking back to the hotel when he saw the sight of Christine-Elena rushing down the road towards him, her vagina and thighs on show from her skirt hitched up around her hips and her breasts flopping up wildly in her singlet.

"Oh my God...!" Joshua abruptly turned around, looking away from the sight.

Christine-Elena hadn't seen him until she was about five feet away from him.

"Baby!" She squawked and immediately hugged him from behind. "Hey, what's the matter?" She stroked his hair as he turned back around.

"You're naked." He pointed at her.

"I'm married." She beamed happily.

Joshua didn't know what to say.

"And we need to go back to city so Wonwoo does his songing." She explained.

Joshua smiled at how she fucked up her Korean.

"Yes, that's tonight isn't he?" He rubbed the back of his neck.

"Yes." Christine-Elena nodded. She held out her hands to him, and, Joshua thought it was fairly strange behaviour of her seeing as she married Chan last night, but, they walked back to the hotel hand in hand, her thumb stroking over his knuckles in a way too tender Joshua felt to be doing to a friend of your brand-new-husband's. Once back inside the hotel, Christine-Elena took him up to she and Chan's room, and, out of a beautiful black-velvet line sterling-silver jewelry box, she bought out two small bits of wood lined with paper-towel and held together with bull-clips. She undid them briefly to show Joshua pressed marshmallow flowers.

"On my head when I marry Chan." She gave one of the tiny squares to Joshua. "For you."

Joshua looked from the gift in his hands to her speechlessly.

"You don't come so I have to make something for you, darlin'." She told him.

"Oh, Chrissie," Joshua faltered. "No, look, no, I can't -"

"You fucking do, cunt." She slapped him around the head. "Chan and I live and breathe for you. Fucking take it, bastard."

Joshua was rendered into a complete state of shock.

Within the next hour, they were all on the boat back to mainland Denmark.

Joshua went and told Jeonghan and Seokmin who were talking together on the boat's deck by the railing at the narrowest tip about what had happened. 

"That's so nice!" Seokmin complained. "She didn't give us any of her wedding flowers!"

"Yes, be grateful." Jeonghan pinched Joshua's upper arm. 

Despite the warm summer's day, the sea air going past them was cold, so they were all wrapped up in jumpers, hoodies and cardigans.

"That's nice." Joshua tried to make amends of his stupid behaviour by pointing at Jeonghan's navy ribbed-knit cardigan. "Sylvia's wardrobe?"

Jeonghan nodded.

"They weren't her clothes?" Seokmin asked quietly.

Jeonghan laughed. "No!" He hurried to tell Seokmin. "She bought them for the wardrobe in her studio for the models and that and Minghao gave it to me."

"Oh, thank God." Seokmin had felt a bit weak over the idea of Jeonghan wearing a dead ladies cardigan.

"And it's a bloke's cardi, anyway." Jeonghan tugged at the hem.

"Chrissie would have you by now." Joshua told Seokmin solemnly.

Seokmin and Jeonghan laughed.

"Yeah, she would have wouldn't she?" Seokmin commented, a bright smile on his face as the Kattegat sea winds whipped he, Joshua and Jeonghan's hair about. Jeonghan's hair with it's length was just about lethal. It had gotten Seokmin in the eye, twice.

Jeonghan tucked some of it behind his ears. Joshua thought he looked rather pretty. Joshua told him. Jeonghan nearly fell over. 

"He's still drunk from last night." Seokmin explained to Joshua as reason as Jeonghan righted himself.

But Joshua knew that there was no way in hell that Jeonghan would have drunk anything last night. Jeonghan did drink but Joshua just knew; Jeonghan hadn't had a shower, and, Joshua couldn't smell it on his breath or his skin. What he could smell was cigarettes and any other time Joshua would have made comment about that, but, Jeonghan smelled exactly like Minghao, so, Joshua knew that they were Minghao's cigarettes.

Joshua went to find him and he found Minghao in the lobby of the passenger ship with Junhui. Joshua stopped. They looked like a couple with one of Minghao's legs over Junhui's and Junhui attentively gazing at him as they talked.

It made something in Joshua freeze.

He couldn't look away from it.

But, then, Minghao was looking at him.

"Shua!" Minghao said.

They had come down in seperate cars down to the harbour, and, Joshua knew that in a way, Minghao had avoided him, and had avoided him as in not purposely looking for him.

Was that it?

Joshua waved to him, but, it was numb.

Junhui got up and left so Joshua could be with Minghao.

Joshua carefully took Junhui's seat.

"Josh, I -" Minghao began, resting his head on his fist, elbow up on the back of one of the chairs, but, Joshua cut him off.

"I fucked things up, didn't I?" He said. "I hurt you over Sylvia, didn't I?"

Minghao looked at him, his mouth open a little bit. He didn't say anything for several long moments. He looked away from Joshua. 

"You never came to the wedding." Minghao finally spoke.

Joshua explained to him about Christine-Elena with her marshmallow flowers earlier that day. 

A small smiled tugged at Minghao's lips. "Extroadinairy creature." He murmured over her.

The tops of Joshua's ears flushed pink. 

Minghao's eyes slid to the side and gazed at Joshua directly. "Extroadinairy creature." He whispered of Joshua.

Joshua's head ducked down to the ground.

He knew he was forgiven.

-

"Han-ah?" 

"Hm?" Jeonghan looked over to Seokmin, the two of them still out on the boat's deck.

"Where are you?" Seokmin asked.

Jeonghan's mouth quirked up. "What do you mean?"

"The moment one of us isn't around you, you go off into your own little world that none of us really know about and can't figure out and you don't seem to hear us or feel us for ages." Seokmin said. "You look sad."

"No, I'm fine." Jeonghan smiled.

Seokmin blinked softly. "It's Shua-hyung again, isn't it?" He murmured.

Jeonghan went still inside.

-

"Right, where are we, what are we doing?"

Mingyu, Minghao, Chan and Vernon watched as Wonwoo neatly strode into Benedict's wife's gallery and talked directly to the band. He was dressed in a black t-shirt and jeans and dusky red-black Doc Martens. The boys had slowly notice Wonwoo start to dress a little bit different since he met Woosung; he had come out of his shell, was less concious.

Barely.

Honestly, barely, but, it was just enough to be seen, to be told.

Vernon smiled as Wonwoo forced them out with only three hours left before the half-ten show. 

"Woosung!" Wonwoo shouted.

"Yeah?" Woosung came out of another section of the gallery.

"Did Benedict sort out everything I asked him for?" Wonwoo asked.

Woosung gave him a thumbs-up. 

"Oh, thank fuck." Wonwoo relaxed for a minute before he realized something else. He looked at the band. "Where's the synth?" he asked in English.

"Stoned. You know, weed." The drummer replied in English.

Wonwoo just about blew his top. "You are kidding me?" He said. 

"With Benedict's wife." The drummer slowly added.

Wonwoo came to understand.

"Oh, so he doesn't know then?" Wonwoo scoffed incredulously.

The band shook their head. 

"Oh, Christ." Wonwoo said to himself in Korean.

"We can make the sound - play the sound - through bluetooth connected to the speakers." The lead guitarist attempted to fix things for Wonwoo. "We have the recording and by half the ten of the clock everyone is faint and swoony and has had the wine."

"Christ, I hope so." Wonwoo sucked in a inhale of air through his teeth.

The drummer gave him the thumbs up. "It be ok." He said. "Boss -" In reference to Benedict's wife. "- can't complain if it goes bad see as it's her fault."

Wonwoo tried to smile but inside anxiety gnawed at him.

-

Minghao and Jeonghan burst out laughing as Jeonghan swore over what he saw in Minghao's suitcase.

"That is beautiful." Jeonghan gently held the dark navy Givenchy garment in his lap, sitting on Minghao's bed. "And you've had it here all of this time?"

A thought went through his mind at the sight of the fitted navy dress with it's circle skirt and double-breasts cape overfit with it's square collar and it's machine gloves and high heels; he hadn't thought about Neve. Had had no inclination even to think of him.

"Please wear it." Minghao asked. "And let me pin your hair up and do your face."

Jeonghan grinned, chuckling a little bit. "Hao, come on, this is imporant -"

"Have you entirely forgotten what we achieved?" Minghao interrupted. "478,000 hits for every image I post of you, every art piece. And now we're one of the most talked about modern art galleries of Western Europe. Tonight, we're going to make ourselves a little richer, and not just in money." Minghao gazed down at Jeonghan. "This is nothing about gender, sexuality, trangender, like, no, not anything like that." Minghao told him. "This is you, and this is me, continuing on Sylvia's gallery, and her business, and her art, and making us the Kings. Please?"

"Let me get in the shower first." Jeonghan agreed.

Minghao kissed his head, his hands either side of Jeonghan's face.

-

"Don't actually tell me, but, the wedding was good, wasn't it?" Joshua asked Vernon. They were sitting on the roof of Christine-Elena's emporium with a couple of beers, waiting to get into the shower's downstairs, and, decided to kill some time.

Vernon nodded. "Fucking spectacular." He said. "Like nothing you've ever seen. They didn't do half the stuff they usually do. It almost wasn't a Pagan wedding they didn't do so much as to not scare Chan. Hm." Vernon grinned. "Almost." He said with emphasis upon the word.

Joshua nodded, hugging his knees to his chest. He was just in a white and black striped shirt and jeans at the moment with orders from Woosung on behalf of Benedict to come to the gallery later, not so much formal, but, with edge, and, a bit of black.

"How did Seungkwan cope with it?"

Vernon laughed. "Took it in his stride." He swallowed some beer. "Later he did some dancing with the Druid wives to the BeeGee's."

"Oh, no!" Joshua exclaimed, resting his forehead against his knees.

Vernon virtually cackled. "It was bloody marvellous, mate." Vernon promised Joshua. He sighed after drink of beer. He peered at Joshua. "Tell us something?"

Joshua shrugged. "Don't know." He said.

Vernon thumbed his nose. "Alright, I'll pick one then." He decided. He looked to Joshua. "Tell me which one of us has stopped breathing?"

-

Jeonghan took in a deep breath, looking at himself in the mirror. He had promised Minghao to come in on his arm to the gallery, and, he hoped to living hell that Joshua didn't get put out, because, in all honesty, Jeonghan knew that Joshua would give anything to be on Minghao's arm, but, Jeonghan himself would also kill for the mere chance to be able to be on Joshua's arm.

Minghao had pinned Jeonghan's up into a low chignon just how he wanted it, with gentle black make-up complimented with nude-brown shades and dark red lipstick with virtually nothing else.

The Givenchy garment fitted Jeonghan perfectly, and, he found it, in a form, ironic. 

Ironic that it fit him so perfectly.

Ironic that his body was such a way to make Givenchy garments fit it. 

He came out of the bathroom, knowing that Minghao needed to dive into it and it's shower.

-

Fifteen minutes before they needed to be at the Gallery, everyone hurriedly piled into cabs, but, as they did so, they all managed to gawp at Jeonghan in the mid-calf length design with the waist-length and collared double-breasted slip-over cape and his stockinged legs in the tall high heels. 

"It doesn't even look like a man in a frock." Jihoon said.

"Yeah, he actually looks like a girl." Soonyoung breathed.

"Don't ever fucking say that to him." Jihoon snapped.

Jeonghan and Minghao climbed into a cab that Minghao had specifically ordered for them. 

"Don't worry, I wouldn't ever put you in something horrible." Minghao soothingly told Jeonghan, holding one of his gloved wrists, the matching gloves to the dress going up to his upper arms. "And you've worn much less than this, before."

Jeonghan snorted a soft laugh. "What if people take pictures?" He asked.

Minghao shrugged. "That's the whole point." He was wearing tailored black trouser's and a leather waistcoat in doc martens with a collared and button-up shirt with rolled up sleeves and not all the buttons done up on the shirt, printed with tiny birds, two little black upside down curves, like the sight of a illustration of a bird flying at distance. "You know there's going to be journalists outside the gallery, right?" Minghao peered over the tops of his cherry-red lensed Lennon glasses.

Jeonghan's mouth went dry.

"So all you have to do is ignore them." Minghao told him easily. "But not snootily ignore them. Gracefully ignore them. Korean aphrodite."

-

"What the....?" Seungkwan pointed out the window as Jeonghan and Minghao's cab went to the front of the gallery and he and Vernon's cab along with the other's went around the back. 

Vernon and Seungkwan looked at the driver. 

He shrugged and said something they didn't understand in Danish.

Vernon decided to put trust in the driver and took Seungkwan in his guide.

Vernon prayed nothing fucked up. 

They soon found out why. As soon as they got out of the cab they could hear yelling and screaming and questions been thrown everywhere, left, right and centre. 

"There's been a bit of media attention, guys, sorry." Woosung rushed out of the back of the gallery with Benedict, both men in three piece suits, Woosung's black while Benedict's was a light grey, and explained to them. 

"But Hao and Han have -" Vernon began.

"You do realize that they have become quite established on this scene, don't you?" Woosung cut in. 

"Er -" Vernon begun.

"Not like this!" Seungkwan interjected. 

"Ok, ok, right, tell you later, come in now, come in, come in." Woosung hurried them, and, between he and Benedict, all of the Korean guests were shooed inside like chickens.

"Establish on this scene?" Seungkwan whispered to Vernon, echoing Woosung's words of Jeonghan and Minghao. "What the fuck?!"

-

Finally, everything was ready, and, the performance begun.

Beautiful piano played in small note melodies interfused with ambientic synth-background, blurred instrument and sound, and, the background choir of three girls that were not live had been beautifully melded down to fit into the synth. Wonwoo closed his eyes briefly, finally able to relax. Bluetooth connected to the speakers. Of course it would have worked. Why was he worrying? Maybe that the live band wouldn't then be able to keep it up and make it not even more apparent than it was that there was no synth keyboard and it's player?

All the way back on the boat and then the train from Northern Zealand, Woosung and the guys had left Wonwoo alone so he could learn the third version of a song he had written in Korean now in Danish language. Murmuring to himself for hours, hoping to get it right, the lack of the synth instrumentalist had frightened Wonwoo, and, now, as best as he could, he put it out of his mind.

"When you're in love but you don't know what to do with it..." Wonwoo sang softly in a mildly haltered way, fingertips pressing to the cable in his ear that let him hear the bluetooth connected synth instrumental discography better. The microphone he used emitted a sound that was autotuned due to the circuit board by the microphone stand, so easy to work, simply by pressing a toe on different switches. Wonwoo tried not to concerntrate on the guests of the gallery and his friends in the three-hundred person crowd around the stage with the lights moving every once in a while, not onto the crowd but into the air above, lighting up the shark-tooth roof of the old munition factories and their upper white-washed brick walls. "When blackness hangs overhead like a cloud...

Don't worry, darling..."

Upon that line, a second edit of the instrumental discography came into play from the bluetooth connected speaker's, intensifying the sound of the music, and, then, the vocal sound as the badn began to sing behind Wonwoo. 

"'Cause I'm here with you

Don't worry darlin'

The sun will shine through..."

Wonwoo stepped back a bit from the microphone, disconnecting the microphone from the stand and going over to sit on the drummer's bass drum, dangling his hands and the microphone between his knees for a few moments as the music played and the accoustic guitarist walked over to where he was. People were now filming on their phones and taking pictures, and, Wonwoo sort of wished they wouldn't, purely for the purpose of keeping the room sacred, keeping his first public attempt at what he formerly wanted to do with his life sacred. He had always wanted music, love music. And instead he was a secretary for an organized crime boss and now his partner.

"When you wake and you don't know what day it is

When the pain flows through your heart and your bones..."

Wonwoo gazed up earnestly at the accoustic guitarist as they sung together, and the Danish man still played his instrument effortlessly all the while, Wonwoo holding the microphone up higher for him so he didn't have to bend over with the guitar, and, as a result, Wonwoo's head was tipped back slightly, still sitting on the drum, and, somewhere, a little voice in the back of his head murmured about all his mates copping a look at his jawline and once again remarking that it looks like his Mother once used to grate radishes on it.

"Don't worry, darlin'

'Cause I'm here with you..."

Other notes in the discography began to play, a hint of a passing breeze, that distinctive, soft whoosh! and the very soft sound of a girl whispering something very indistinct.

"Don't worry, darlin'

The sun will shine through..."

Wonwoo swallowed against his carpet-dry throat.

"When you feel no one knows just what you're going through..."

Within the discography, the girl's voice whispered, "What your going through." Wonwoo wondered if that was Benedict's wife voice, synthesized and warped, or, whether, it was someone else. For a small moment, Wonwoo so easily imagined the girl's voice as Christine-Elena's. Yes. She was the sort of woman who would interfere in all of this and tell the syntheisist to keep it in his pants - oh, wait, no! He's got a drug-fucked brain. That was what she would tell him before she neatly kicked him in the cods and magically then had the talent to be the synthesist for the evening. 

"When your insides feel much colder than snow..."

The soft tinkling of metal notes echoed.

"Don't worry, darlin'

'Cause I'm here with you..."

The sound of multiple flutes, strained down and nurtured, filled the air as wonwoo and the accoustic guitarist ground down their voices richer, deeper, against the autotune as the music began to swell.

"Don't worry, darlin'

Oh, don't worry, darlin!"

On that line, Wonwoo's head tipped back more slightly, and, unbeknowest to him, in the crowd, Woosung thought that he could never find a more beautiful human being to love, and to love him, in the whole wide world. On that line, the breath of everyone in that gallery had been caught, and, hands rose to mouths and eyes widened out of pure awe.

The intensity of the music fell away so simply, as though it was a human heartbeat once constricted and then freed.

Wonwoo got up from the bass drum and returned to the front of the stage, re-hooking the microphone into it's stand. For the final three lines, it would just be him with intensified focus on the discography, which, in all honesty, was his voice doubled over twelve times, to have the effect different from having twelve different people singing together with him. So it was him only. Him only for the rest of the world and the gallery that was watching on him.

"Don't worry, darlin'..."

The soft piano symphony returned in it's gentle strokes of composition, and, Wonwoo's eyes gazed over in a soft, sweeping curve of the audience, not really seeing anyone but then seeing everyone.

In the crowd, Minghao's fingertips touched his lips, watching so lightly but intently that it made him swam, gave him that feeling of being in love. He glanced across the crowd to Jihoon who looked as though he was floating in the middle of the sea, completely taken away by what Wonwoo and the band had created, so approving, so inclined to wanting to hear it forever that he wished he created it himself. 

Seungcheol looked over to Jeonghan whose eyes flickered from Wonwoo's face to his hands to his hip and back to his face, and, a peculiar warmth flooded Seungcheol's chest, not from not breathing, but from the air around him. Maybe it was that he had had too much excitement in such a small space of time. Maybe it was because Wonwoo's performance was putting the crown on top of what had been a few of the most magnificent days of Seungcheol's life, all through the other means of his friends continuing to create the future of the rest of their lives.

"I'll always...love..." Wonwoo sang softly, and, in that moment, he found Woosung's face in the crowd.

Pink light from the lighting-work above the stage illuminated, the gallery stuff bending the light's turrets and moving them about to add to the ambientic affect, the pink not to present anything to do with Wonwoo or the band, but, to do with a painting somewhere in the gallery from a Latvian artist that was recieving critical claim from throughout the world. It was to this painting, and to this gallery, that Benedict had decided that Wonwoo giving a performance would be an art of perfection, a state of marriage that was just so aesthetically and emotionally correct.\par  
The man with his upcurved grey-blue eyes had been right.

"...You..."

Joshua's head tipped back, his eyes slipping closed, completely lost with the sound washing over him, transporting him, making him feel alive but so faint in doing so, he remembered it as the feeling...the feeling of the first time he saw Sylvia Jenkins, the first time Minghao told him he loved him, the first time he saw Jeonghan elevated to a world stage, been a model for Minghao's continaution of Sylvia's gallery, the time only not so long ago when Christine-Elena had given him some of her wedding flowers, the first time Joshua had ever sat under a birch tree by a Danish island harbour, watching the sky turned light-pink and speckle with gold, reflecting on the harbour water's surface, as the sun came up and he wondered what it would be like for Jeonghan to be in love with him again.

"...You..."

Jeonghan pressed his lips to his mouth, tears welling up in his eyes. It was all Wonwoo, all his music. And yet it was all Joshua. All of it was Joshua. The sight of his eyes, his smile, his hair, the careful way he would move around people sometimes, and simply Joshua himself; how he could get lonely easily, how he often fell asleep in the bath, how he always remembered not nessecarily how to make someone's tea but how they liked it, how he gave enough courtesy to Sylvia Jenkins to then begin to fall in love with her, and the constant swaying of relationship that Joshua had always held with Jeonghan, always on the edge of something. 

As the instrumental composition faded, a tear rolled down Jeonghan's cheek, Seungcheol grinned brightly, Vernon and Seungkwan sprung away to not be caught half slow-dancing together, having a giggle, then only to notice that Soonyoung and Seokmin had been doing the same thing behind Jihoon's back; Jihoon was the first to begin applauding, Mingyu was so lost in a sub-space that it took him a few moments to come around, each of Minghao's hands were curved around his neck, thinking of all the world around him and the one he had to create as soon as he got back to Korea, Chan and Christine-Elena kissed, Junhui avidly filmed on his phone, planning to send the film to Vanessa Morrobito for their magazine and then to Thomasina privately, Joshua slowly opened his eyes, not wanting to leave where he had gone too.

And Woosung.

Woosung gaze up at the young man that he knew - now truly, truly knew within himself - was the love of his life.


	54. FIFTY-FOUR

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys re-adjust to Korea after Denmark but something has changed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First chapter of this year! I was finally able to do it! I read two pages of Nigella Lawson's "Cook, Eat, Repeat" and then I really tried XD So, here we are :)

It took time for all of them adjust being back in Korea. In full honesty, all of them had been content to not go back. To stay in Europe, to stay in Denmark, with it's realistic fantasy with it's countryside and it's freezing shore-line and it's centuries-old architecture of both cities, villages, people and culture. Korea was nothing compared to it; it was ungracious and obnoxious, polluted and loud, dirty and neon-coded. It was identifiable as home, recognizable as a birthplace, but, it didn't feel like it once did. All of them, every single one of them - n - was undergoing a change in self faster than the speed of light, and, the scene where they had spent so many years was no a waste to them. They all knew that things were going to have to change, because, while they couldn't stop or do anything about the change within themselves, they had to do everything possible to stop Korea putting the change into a rut, dwarfing it to the point of degradation, ruining it, leaving something shrunken and hollow and bitter and dark. It was such an intensity, this feeling that all them felt. It made gazes, knowing, secret, private, longing, hopeful, dream-like, speechless, between them; to all those they loved, it was a hidden desire to just be able to pick up everything special and run away. 

Seungkwan would have given anything to take Peter and the paediatric clinic and its babies anywhere in the world, anywhere in time, with him, and Vernon felt the business that was now one where he worked but not owned dragging him down, like a chain and ball wrapped around his ankle, and, with that drag, it took the health from him, diseased him, tired him. Chan felt it as a form of guilt; Christine-Elena had lived in Korea for years, her Father was the managing-director of the Hyundai car company manufacturing line in Korea. Chan felt like that he had dragged her away from her native, her home, her indigenous, and, to do that, it felt like a crime for how much he loved her. It was an itch on his skin, one that grew painful, one that twisted his gut. Though it was abstracted in quite a few ways, Chan had never felt more at home in his wife's world, and, yet, here she was trying to fit into his, or, at least, a world determined to be his in manner.

Minghao was sad. There was no denying it. He was sad. Every once in a while, a internal longing came for Sylvia Jenkins. Ever since coming back from Denmark, it had hit him terribly. It didn't stop him working, it didn't stop him eating, it didn't stop him living. But, it stopped him living. Minghao was shamefully aware of Joshua; and how vibrant Joshua's presence was. He talked and talked and talked. He never seemed to stop talking. It warmed Minghao up around the edges just a little bit, and, the manner of warming wasn't thick, but, a very delicate thing; the difference in condition was akin to the difference between oil-based paints and water-colour. The latter was easier to ruin. Minghao felt that so conciously most of all. Mingyu was more aware then ever that he really, in full honesty, was quite lonely. Six days out of a seven day week he was coming home to an empty house, only to look out of the window to hear or see or notice the sound and evidence of the existence of Wonwoo next door with Woosung, the existence of Wonwoo's individual life, the existence of the life that Wonwoo was making with Woosung. Mingyu didn't begrudge them their love and connection at all; God now. Of course he didn't. But with all of Wonwoo's attention devoted to another, it made him eerily open. He had grown used to Wonwoo always been around, always needing him sometimes. But that had changed, and, all in all, it was the first of many changes.

Seokmin simply wanted life; he wanted more life. He wanted the intensity and the thrill and the honour of life made, percieved, projected, love and enjoyed that had been the experience of Denmark. He wanted that every single day. He needed to feel that every single day; the same breathlessness, that anticipation, that excitement of saying goodnight and then the good morning the next day, after the dawn. The excitement to be alive. Jihoon shared his enthusiasm despite his physical limitations that flowed into his blood and his bones. He had all the money in the world to achieve, travel, live. Jihoon had thought that he had being doing alright, for, he had had a huge testament to his life via Madeleine, even though that had been a bloody disaster. Not even twenty-six years old and he had been married, divorced, resscuitated three times and in a come three times also. In Jihoon's life, there was a benchmark. And, in all honesty, Jihoon knew that it quietly stunned him that anything could ever take over it, and with completely sheer audacity.

Wonwoo went to sleep every night gazing softly at Woosung asleep beside him in their bed, and, he went to sleep thinking about how to take it further; what else could they do? What else could he do? It was a slow-motion burn in Wonwoo. He wanted, and wanted, and wanted. He wanted to make, to create, to live, to solidfy, then all of that to re-create again. But there was only so much that could be done, for, they were human. Wonwoo knew that they couldn't do it within these four walls. It wasn't just the matter of the home; it was the whole world around them at that moment. The four walls of that world made it impossible.

Soonyoung wanted the same essentially as Seokmin, but, with his desire came a different sense of urgency. He wanted to lie down within that new life, hold it within his arms, and, simultaneously, be held by it also. This soft energy coursed through him at the mere thought. That's how Soonyoung knew it was so right; it was so utterly and completely right. At any moment's notice, Junhui was right there, right where he was asked to be, right where he was needed to be. After Europe, and then saying goodbye in Korea to his friends who were as good as family, Australia looked different, seemed different, smelt different, breathed different, lived different, and, it all wore on Junhui differently. Australia was an exercise in freedom; an exercise of battling on, not giving a fuck what people thought, being ignorant, basically. Lying for your own benefit, twisting a knife to get what you needed even if it hurt someone's life. Junhui felt it had given him more mettle, more strength. More anger. Definitely more anger. Junhui could feel the man in him growing every day he woke up in Australia. The battler. But all he wanted to do was take it somewhere else now. Battle on somewhere else; an elsewhere it was utter bliss. Even if it meant sacrificing things - like Thomasina - and making distance - Vanessa.

But, it was the Australian way.

Joshua could feel Minghao infinitely, especially when they slept, Minghao's heart beating it's way into Joshua's chest, making a tattoo there. Joshua could sense the aura off of Minghao, but, in a way that was disgraceful and shameful in his mind, he had relished in it. The sense of need, the sense of Minghao specifically needing him, wanting him to be there for that need. And of that need Minghao asked nothing of Joshua. Nothing more than a simple incline of head that could mean a thousand different things, that simple gesture. Joshua didn't mind that Minghao was mostly silent; Minghao didn't seem to mind being mostly silent either. Joshua could sense the edge in Minghao, and, therefore, he knew it was an edge for him as well. Joshua was haunted by Vernon's words: "When did you stop breathing?"

But, the haunting was despicable, wasn't painful. It was thrilling. It was like the stars; the biggest night sky of Joshua's life. It was coming. All of it was coming. 

Jeonghan could lose sleep at night over the thought of Seokmin being able to read him so well. Everything was secret, everything was hidden, everything was walking on a tight rope that had the end wrapped around his throat before entering inside and pulling tortously on his guts whenever he saw Joshua. It could make Jeonghan sit quietly in a chair for hours and hours at a party, not drinking, not talking, not doing anything, wishing he could just die because he couldn't possibly ever hate Joshua, hate Joshua for making him feel like this, because, all in all...it just wasn't that. Jeonghan developed a nervous tick in his chest whenever a memory came back involving Joshua, touching him, kissing him, breathing him in. It was inescapable. And it immediately filled Jeonghan up with a complete envy, a envy over Minghao. Jeonghan wished he could go back in time; Jeonghan wasn't quite sure of it, but, he swore things had been better, had felt better, in Europe than they did now.

And as for Seungcheol?

He felt like he had been biting his tongue for a decade. 

Since he was sixteen years old, he'd always been biting his tongue.

But he said it.

Aloud, a whisper, just in the night to himself.

"God, I'd love to go to Copenhagen again."


	55. FIFTY-FIVE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crowd have a rowdy time at Minghao's as they discuss the future

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, honestly, I was trying to think of a song that even though it wouldn't be the same in a book - what was a song that you could listen to as a reader that could somehow coincide, even minimally, with the matter that you're reading. On a practical level, it had to be either soekmin or seungkwan or both of them - the weeknd's style of production of his sound is falcetto-melodic notes as a river current throughout every line of his songs, and, with what I'm working with - SEVENTEEN - seokmin and seungkwan are ultimately the falcetto kings, for, not only can they reach the high notes, but, they can easy keep a melody, either tenatiaive or strong, without their voice breaking, straining, or, sounding effiminate. i know i tend to over-think things when i'm writing, but, writing like life is an experimental art, you need to adapt it and progress it and create it as it's own creature; in my mind's eye it was seokmin and seungkwan that i could imagine really conducting this behaviour. i considered soonyoung to go with seokmin, but, a lot of seungkwan interacting with anyone else bar vernon is a rarity in this novel, so, I wanted to make some change on that. 

"Did you ever go to university?" Jeonghan asked Christine-Elena. He, the Scandinavian woman, Minghao, Vernon and Soonyoung were sitting at the dining room table in Minghao's home, drinking.

"No, thank goodness." She giggled. "Dad forbid it. He says that he can't look after me if I kill fuck-boys in the building."

A bubble of laughter went around the table.

They were all at Minghao's, gathered in like a small tribe. All of them were quite conciously aware that other people would see it as weird, would wonder why they were always there when they had other friends all amongst themselves as individuals and other circumstances. Why were they always around each other? But, the truth was, no one else felt like them, or had the same experiences as them. They were inevitably all welded together.

And no one wanted to get rid of that.

It was no crime, no sin.

Unusual? Well, what was wrong with unusual when it was no crime, no sin?

"Wonwoo, sing Ophelia." Mingyu called for Wonwoo, who, was sitting on the kitchen island in Minghao's kitchen with a concoction that Woosung had made, stating as been seen in every Scottish, Welsh and Irish has to the disgust of the English; tì uisge-beatha was tea secifically made with alcohol as it's own recipe, not just the English treatment of shock - a splash of grog in a cuppa - which was to make tea to put you over the driving limit. 

"Yes, I'm quite partial to that." Wonwoo agreed. No one knew if he was talking about the tea or the song.

"Can I use the fruit bowl, Hao?" Mingyu tucked his head into the dining room and asked.

"What for?" Minghao raised an eyebrow delicately. Soonyoung grinned down into his beer.

"Drum." Mingyu mimicked.

"No." Minghao answered coldly.

"I'll take the fruit out first." Mingyu explained.

"Use a saucepan, you'll get better resonance." Minghao dismissed him with a wave of his hand, turning his attention back to Christine-Elena.

"Bloody smashing." Vernon chuckled to himself softly.

"By the way, I still love this house." Christine-Elena gestured about.

"Thank you very much." Minghao smiled.

"Maybe that's another thing you should do." Christine-Elena smiled as she stood up, taking her drink with her as she planned to go and find Joshua.

"Pardon?" Minghao said.

"Use the style to stop people making ugly homes." Christine-Elena pulled a revolted expression. 

Minghao laughed. "I don't have the patience to deal with tradesmen. Vernon's one of them and look how much trouble he has with that business let alone everyone else."

"I, I, when I was younger

I, I, should have known better..." 

Wonwoo began to sing, sitting up on the kitchen island with Chan one one side with two wooden baking spoons and Mingyu on the other with a saucepan, beating the top of it with his hands. Wonwoo sung as well as always.

"And I can't feel no remorse and you don't feel nothing back..."

Joshua nearly killed himself with suppressed laughter. Christine-Elena had come over to him, but, barely a nanoscend later, she was struck down. Christine-Elena's mouth had turned into a dramatic upside down shape, and, she had one hand in her bra with a very bad itch in a delicate place. 

"Fuckin' washin' powder..." Christine-Elena muttered. 

"I can't help?" Joshua tried to gather his manners.

"Yes, you itch too." Christine-Elena gestured.

"No, no way, I'm out." Joshua held his hands up in surrender and vanished out of her reached..

Christine-Elena laughed softly, not wanting to interrupt Wonwoo's music. "Sorry, baby." She called.

She glanced over to see Joshua's sweet smile. He didn't mind.

"I, I, got a new girlfriend

She feels like he's on top

And I don't feel no remorse

And you can't see past my blinders..."

"SING THIS NEW SONG!" Christine-Elena yelled, never holding back. Dead silence suddenly filled Minghao's house.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT?" Chan shouted.

"NOT THAT FUCKING SHIT!" Christine-Elena threw her hands up into the air.

Everyone laughed. 

"YOU DIDN'T BRING YOUR ELECTRIC GUITAR TONIGHT, DID YOU?" Wonwoo shouted.

"FUCK IT!" Christine-Elena howled.

Wonwoo burst out laughing. "WE'LL SING TOGETHER!"

"YOU DON'T SPEAK DANSK!" Christine-Elena pointed precisely at him.

"YOU DON'T SPEAK KOREAN!" Wonwoo commented.

"FUCKIN' FAIR ENOUGH!" Christine-Elena shrugged with a pretty smile. 

Everyone cackled.

"EVERYONE STOP SHOUTING BEFORE THE POLICE ARE CALLED!" Minghao hollered, coming out of the dining room.

"BABY!" Christine-Elena blew him a kiss.

It was only then that everyone really noticed that one of the Scandinavian's woman's breasts was poking out of the neckline of her dress.

"Kwannie, you can sing." Vernon also came out of the dining room and found Seungkwan in the sitting room.

"No way." Seungkwan shook his head.

"You do it for the babies." Vernon implored.

"Because babies are babies and babies are beautiful little things." Seungkwan remarked. No one could not agree with that.

Woosung watched on by the entrance to the sitting room, dining room and kitchen from the hall that came off the front door. He had one hand in the pocket's of his trouser's, and sipping a glass of whiskey, he was unable to help this acute feeling of youth around him, falling like a symphony. He observed Seungkwan. If Vernon kept pressing him, he would give in. If everyone else pressed him, he would flatly refuse.

Go on, Woosung thought of Seungkwan gently.

"Only if Seokmin-hyung does it with me." Seungkwan finally ruled.

Everyone looked at Seokmin who was on one side of the sitting room with Seungcheol on his phone.

"One condition." Seokmin said. 

"Yeah?" The rest of the gathering chorused.

"You dance with me." He pointed at Seungkwan. Seungcheol gave the thumb's up.

Seungkwan smiled widely.

Seokmin jogged across to the other side of the room to be with him, and, together, they took up the centre of the sitting room after shifting the coffee table carefully.

Vernon, ever obliging, counted them down.

"Ooo..." Seokmin warmly cooed the first line, and, everyone cheered.

"Yeah..." Seungkwan dropped the vocalization smoothly, faintly, and, the song began.

"I saw you dancing in a crowded room

You look so happy when I'm not you

But then you saw me

I caught you by surprise

A single tear-drop falling from your eyes..." Seungkwan's eyes scooted over to Vernon, and, they stayed there for a moment. Everyone laughed as Seokmin tugged down on the edge of his t-shirt, looking supreme.

"I don't know why I ran away..." Seungkwan's tone effortlessly rose - barely raising at that - to the falcetto melody, and, out of pure pleasure, Jeonghan and Christine-Elena's mouths tipped open in wide smiles.

"Ooo

I'll make you cry when I run away..." At the word "cry" Seungkwan tapped his index finger over his heart, and, nodded to Seokmin who tried not to smile, only for the purpose of not ruining the moment.

"Ooo

You could have asked me why I broke your heart..."

Soonyoung whooped. Jihoon smiled but chided him, and, Wonwoo linked their arms.

"You could have told me that you fell apart

But you walked passed me like I wasn't there

And just pretended that you didn't care..." Seokmin rubbed the back of his neck, as though ashamed, but, the concept was turned by Seungkwans warm smile.\par  
"I don't know why I run away..." Seokmin and Seungkwan danced a little amongst themselves, feet and shoulders moving, living in the moment.

"Ooo

I'll make you cry when I run away

Ooo..."

"Take me back because I wanna stay..." Seungkwan rose up a hand.

"Save your tears for another -" Seokmin sang and, at the end of the line, he and Seungkwan pointed at each other.

"Save your tears for another day

Ooo

Save your tears for another day!" The two of them chorused together.

"You ought to have a band." Minghao came over to Wonwoo and whispered in his ear. 

Wonwoo's heart backflipped in his chest, his stomach knotting.

"I made you think that I would always stay

I said some things that I should never say..." Seokmin spun around on his heel before Seungkwan reached out, got him by his wrist, and pulled him back in before the two young men turned on their heels in a spin again, so, Seungkwan stood where Seokmin initally did, and, Seokmin stood where Seungkwan was at the beginning.

"Yeah, I broke your heart like someone did to mine..." Seungkwan sung in a way that made the sound lift without an extravagant effort on his part, and, the sound made everyone happily live up amongst the rafters of Minghao's home.

"And now you won't love me for a second time..." Seungkwan ran a hand through his hair, shaking his head mournfully.

"I don't know why I run away..." Seungkwan and Seokmin looked at each other before looking at Chan and Seungcheol, Seokmin taking up the singing again. They looked back to each other.

"Ooo

Oh girl...

"See, I'll make you cry when I run away..." Seungkwan and Seokmin dashed across the sitting room floor to gracefully take the hands of Seungcheol and Chan.

Chan and Seungcheol's laughter mixed with Seokmin and Seungkwan's warm, melodic "Ooo."

"Girl, take me back 'cause I wanna stay..." Seokmin danced with Seungcheol and Seungkwan danced with Chan.

Save your tears for another..." Seungkwan stroked Seungcheol's face as Seokmin sung, the simply side of a index finger down Seungcheol's temple to his cheekbone to his jaw, but, for the reaction of the house, it was like he had just fondled Seungcheol through his slacks.

"I realize that I'm much to late

And you deserve someone better...!" 

The singing was broken and stopped by Soonyoung shrieking.

"JIHOON'S GETTING THE CHEST PAINS!" 

"DON'T FUCKING WORRY IT'S JUST THE HEARTBURN!" Jihoon roared.

-

It was on the tip of Jeonghan's tongue. Had been for ages. He was bursting. Really nearly bursting. Every second that he saw Joshua it was crawling up his throat. 

"Come and kiss me like real people do."

"Jeonghan-ah?"

Jeonghan turned to the side to see Seokmin beside him. Jeonghan suddenly felt nauseous, light-headed.

"Are you ok?" Seokmin asked. "You're shaking."

"Oh, fuck." Jeonghan's hands pressed over his mouth, silver-with-black-roots hair on one side of his face falling to cover him as he grimaced, feeling revolted.

"It's ok, you can't tell unless you're right up close." Seokmin's hand wrapped around Jeonghan's elbow. Seokmin's thumb rubbed up and down the inside of the crook of the elbow.

"Come with me." Seokmin whispered. "Let's get a moment to ourselves."

"Does it look like something's wrong with me?" Jeonghan whisperedly, tucking his hair behind his ears nervously.

"No, it looks like we're having a nice time." Seokmin assured him, putting an arm around Jeonghan and guiding him out of the room.

Jeonghan nodded.

They went upstairs, the stairs creaking slightly under their feet, and, they laid down on the bed in the spare bedroom. 

"You're not ok." Seokmin murmured, his eyes raking over Jeonghan's face.

Jeonghan's eyes closed heavily, tiredly. "I know." He murmured back.

-

Vernon found Joshua. 

"What you said - about not breathing." Joshua said after a few long moments of he and Vernon looking at each other silently. "I get what you mean."

-

"I want to go back." Wonwoo told Woosung, the two of them laying together in Woosung's bed. Woosung had been reading the newspaper with a coffee and Wonwoo had embarked on War & Peace only to put it down after scarcely two minutes. It was just getting onto Midnight, and, they had been home from Minghao and Joshua's for about half an hour. 

"Go back to where?" Woosung looked down at Wonwoo, Wonwoo's head on his shoulder from where Woosung himself lay, propped up against the pillows on the bed.

"Denmark." Wonwoo pushed his glasses further up his nose.

"What?" Woosung blinked, processing the news

"I'm not kidding." Wonwoo added.

"Why, I -" Woosung softly laughed. "It was lovely, wasn't it?"

"Korea's nothing compared to it. So polluted and dirty; too many people. It's so nasty, so tight. You can't be yourself, you can't be anyone. It's like a cage."

Wonwoo's mouth came open slightly, his dry lips peeling apart from their harsh stick as the expression on Woosung's face clearly stated that he knew and understood everything that Wonwoo said.

"I've been thinking for ages about what you would say if I told you." Wonwoo explained gently. "I can't adjust back. Why would you? It's everything - psycholigcally, physically, you go backwards on that as soon as you step back into seoul. I know there's ten million different things - so much of the real world - but, it's...you know what I mean, right?"

Woosung nodded slowly. 

"Don't you find it choking? Don't you find it staling?" Wonwoo asked him.

-

Unbeknowest to them, Joshua and Minghao were having the same conversation. They sat on their bed, looking at each other. Minghao sat on the left-hand corner of the bed with one leg crossed, his toes brushing the inside of his opposite thigh, the leg of which hung over the south end of the bed. He had a cigarette, a ash-tray and his black jumper pulled on over his sleeping-shirt even though it was Midsummer, feeling a chill. Joshua sat on the right side of the bed where one's body was supposed to be, cross-legged in his pyjama bottoms and shirt, having pulled on a old cardigan, feeling a chill too but not one so harsh as to put the heater on, for they would nearly instantly overheat.

"Denmark's beautiful, but, it's not where I'd go." Minghao admitted, thumbing his temple gently, his cigarette held between his index and middle fingers.

Joshua deflated slightly.

"And it's not China that I would choose either, no, not ever."

Joshua looked at him.

"I'd choose Wales." Minghao said. "But they'd kill you within a second." A gentle smile came onto half his mouth. "You wouldn't survive a moment, Shua."

Joshua looked down at his hands briefly. "You've been thinking about her, right?"

Minghao nodded.

"You know you need to tell me about stuff like this, right?" Joshua said. "So I can help you?"

"It's the one thing that you can never help with, darling."

Joshua looked at Minghao. "What aren't you telling me?"

"Pardon?" Minghao looked at him.

"You just called me darling." Joshua said. "You call Sylvia darling."

Minghao's teeth grazed the inside of his lower lip. 

"We need to get past this." Joshua gestured with a pained expressioned, ducking his head and moving his hands as though pressing something down.

"What?" Minghao nervously looked into Joshua's eyes.

"You falling and me seeing it silently and then us ending up having this conversation and then having to live with it." Joshua cleanly answered.

"Well, we don't have to anymore." Minghao simply responded, feeling limp.

"How?"

"...We go away." Minghao paused, swallowing. "We run away from all this. Never see it again."

-

"Can't you see? - I'm not scared." Was the words simultaneously uttered by everyone over the course of the evening and the early morning in their little group, to others and then to just themselves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And, the reason why I chose this song - not only because I love it, but, because, it's Anglo-Canadian soft-focus synth-pop origin is something that I grew up with. I love the sound, it's akin to a Indigenous Cymry Paganaith Barddonaieth. And it reminds me of the Smurfs. It's completely ridiculous of me to say it, but, I remember being a very tiny creature and seeing this animated film on the television, about 2010 or just before, and, at the end of the film I think, there was a song playing that had the same discographic sequence and instrumental composition that is in "Save Your Tears". The sound was instantly a memory for me, something imbedded very deep. I always regard 2007 to about 2010 as the most remarkable years; I was only very small back then, but, I just remember so distinctly the sweetheart-chic vintage fashion that every wore, the scent of Narciso Rodriguez perfume, the colours - soft peaches, candy-floss pinks, blackwood dark tones, light lemons and elm-leaf greens, the look, scent and sound of british countryside and generally the air that surrounded us in this beautiful, warm, embrace. we had a labour government both state and federal, we had massive interest on our money in the bank, and, most of all, my nanna had just told me how gingerbread was made. 
> 
> To anyone but me it's a silly thing, a sentimental thing, but, to me, it's completely nostalgic, and, yes, I do admit for one sin:
> 
> I will always forever love that.


	56. FIFTY-SIX

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Woosung and Wonwoo head for the UK while Mingyu heads for a person he hopes could possibly be the rest of his life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally wrote something XD And I'm happy. I'm very happy. I've got so much more to put into this chapter over the next couple of days, so, it's a nice thing for me :) (and, yes, mingyu, poor love, finally has some nice things to happen for him)

Wonwoo and Woosung were the first to leave again. They got onto a plane straight to the UK. "You can see where I grew up." Woosung smiled, the two of them holding hands on the plane as they took their seats in first class. Wonwoo couldn't help being in awe, not just being in first class, but, being in the plane itself. The aircraft that took them to England was much larger than the one that took them to Denmark. "It won't be hard on you; you don't have to worry about my step-father and you don't have to meet my Mother if you don't want to -"

"Can I meet your Mother?"

"Well, I -" Woosung looked a bit stunned.

"I'd like to meet her." Wonwoo smiled, but, he could tell something was wrong. "Woosung?" He waited for his partner to tell him.

Woosung swallowed, the inside of his cheek scraping against his teeth in a way that it did when he was nervous, especially around Wonwoo, looking downwardly. Wonwoo eventually asked, having been hazarding guesses in his mind. "Does she want you to be with a British person?" Wonwoo asked.

"No, love, no." Woosung quickly answered, wiping his hand over the lower half of his face.

"...Would she expect me to be older?"

Wonwoo could tell he was right by the way Woosung didn't move at all.

"Oh, dear." Wonwoo said softly. "There isn't much I can do about, you know that." Wonwoo smiled. Woosung looked at him.

"I'm sorry." Woosung murmured.

"Don't apologise." Wonwoo said. "As you said, we don't have to."

"No, I mean I'm sorry as in I was trying to do something that I thought you'd appreciate." Woosung flushed a little bit.

Wonwoo hesitated. "So any other...so you mean that you in yourself would never want me to meet any of your family?"

Woosung nodded.

"Oh, I see." Wonwoo nodded too.

Woosung's eyes looked over Wonwoo's face. "Is this a mistake?" He asked.

Wonwoo didn't reply for a long time. Eventually he rose his head and gazed at Woosung.

"No, of course not, it's alright." Wonwoo curved both of his hands gently around one of Woosung's hands and squeezed down. 

Woosung felt his stomach twist anxiously.

He knew he had accidentally disconcerted Wonwoo.

Woosung knew old he was too old to be making mistakes like this.

Especially around people young like Wonwoo.

People who didn't understand.

People who couldn't understand.

Wonwoo crossed his legs, resting his head on Woosung's broader shoulder.

"Where exactly are we going again?" Wonwoo asked. "In England I mean?"

"You booked the tickets." Woosung peered down at Wonwoo.

They both laughed but kept it down.

"My involvement stopped at Heathrow." Wonwoo informed Woosung.

"Well, I always thought the nicest part of England was Cornwall." Woosung smiled. "The ocean, the sand, the cliffs, it's very beautiful. I've got a cottage down there. It is a long way from Heathrow, though."

"I gathered that when you said to book a hotel."

"Hm." Woosung glanced up at the ceiling briefly.

One of Wonwoo's hands dropped down and touched the inside of Woosung's thigh. Wonwoo grinned at the immediate little smile that came onto Woosung's mouth.

"Don't you bloody dare." Woosung told him softly.

Wonwoo felt the happiness flow back into his veins again.

He hummed barely perceptibly.

"No." Woosung said again.

Wonwoo lightly scratched the inside of Woosung's thigh. He nearly cheered as Woosung's toes visibly curled up inside of his leather shoes.

-

"I think he's lost weight." Jeonghan told Seungcheol. They were in the kitchen of the apartment that they had once shared with Joshua. Jeonghan was talking about Joshua and Minghao who were asleep on the couch in the sitting room.

"I think they've both lost weight." Seungcheol remarked. He and Jeonghan watched the sleeping couple.

"Do you think they're alright?" Jeonghan asked, but, deep down, he felt the question angled at himself.

Seungcheol hesitated. "Sort of." Seungcheol rubbed the back of his neck. "What's going on with you?" Seungcheol asked instead.

Jeonghan didn't really have anything to answer. Seungcheol smiled softly. "How about you being famous, now?"

Jeonghan smiled bashfully, ducking his head down.

"Minghao keeps it all secret, tell me what's going on." Seungcheol gestured with the fingers on one hand. Jeonghan caught them and held onto them for a moment.

"Everyone just seems to love what he does with me." Jeonghan's cheeks went pink. "I...I'm looking more to...to Wonwoo. I want to see what happens there - I'm not pushing you off or anything, I mean...I just -"

"It's ok, I understand." Seungcheol said.

"Can I pinch one of your bananas?" Jeonghan asked, pointing to the fruit bowl.

"Han, it's your home, too, you don't have to ask." Seungcheol broke him off, in his opinion, the nicest banana of the bunch.

"They're like banana Jihoon's." Jeonghan pointed at the small fruit.

Seungcheol grinned. "All the big ones were still green." He explained.

"Oo-er."

"Like the incredible hulk's dangler." Seungcheol elaborated, thumbing the tip of his jawline.

Jeonghan pressed his hands over his face, trying not to laugh aloud and wake up Joshua and Minghao. 

Seungcheol's eyes fell over Jeonghan's body. He truly was thin. 

"Hannie?"

"Mm?" Jeonghan mumbled around a mouthful of banana, covering his mouth with his hand.

Seungcheol restrained himself from asking, knowing it would creature world war three. "I keep meaning to tell you that your new hair looks nice."

Jeonghan winked sweetly, swallowing the fruit. 

"Why are you being so nice?" Jeonghan quipped.

"Because I am nice." Seungcheol answered. "Unlike you."

"You're right." Jeonghan peeled the banana further. "You give me bananas."

Joshua and Minghao were woken up as Seungcheol burst out laughing. 

-

"You look nice." Wonwoo skyped Mingyu. "And your date looks like a koala."

Mingyu grinned broadly. "So if I find total happiness with my date, will you always have it down as, "Your one and only true love is a koala"."

Wonwoo smiled tenderly.

"You can tell you've recently had a dose of Woosung." Mingyu stirred Wonwoo up. "You're like a bloody koala."

Mingyu's jaw dropped as Wonwoo practically glowed, smiling softly, his eyes slipping closed briefly. He looked incredibly attractive.

So, this is what love does to you, huh? Mingyu thought to himself.

"I'm excited." Wonwoo told Mingyu. "And I'm so happy."

"Give some of it to me!" Mingyu gestured to the laptop screen desperately. Wonwoo laughed. "Quick! Give me some! I want my koala -"

Wonwoo covered his face with his hands.

"- to be bowled over by the fact that she can possibly date walking sunshine!" Mingyu finished.

"You are mental." Wonwoo informed him.

Mingyu flopped back onto the bed, as though he had been hit with a force.

"Yes, just like that!" Mingyu called out.

"Do shut up, it sounds like your conducting intercourse."

Mingyu sat up on his elbows.

"Since when were you a Toff born in Chiswick?" Mingyu commented due to Wonwoo's langauge.

"I'm going now." Wonwoo told him.

"Goodnight, mate." Mingyu sighed.

Wonwoo hesitated. "I didn't mean it."

"But now you must go, goodnight." Mingyu waved as he ended the skype call.

Mingyu cackled aloud. He'd got the spectacled one!

But, the moment Wonwoo left, the ongoing gentle tide of nervousness he had briefly forgotten about in Wonwoo's company returned. Mingyu breathed in and out conciously for a few times. The date was going to be perfect. Everything was going to be perfect. 

But even if it did go wrong, he still got out of the house.

But, no, absolutely not.

Everything was going to be perfect.

-

Mingyu wandered down the street, a bundle of flowers wrapped up in brown paper and string held between his hands.

It's ok, he murmured to himself internally. It'll be fantastic

Her name was Emily. She was four foot nine - "Won't let her too near Christine-Elena the first time they might ever meet if we have a party or something, Chrissie will mistake her for a hor'deuve." had been Mingyu's inital thought - with a round-cheeked face, a small mouth, hooded brown-bear eyes, thick black hair, and dark-oak toned skin. She wasn't overweight or underweight; she was a perfectly normal shape with nice breasts and a nice bum. 

"Never settle for average." Chan had once told him. "Never settle for agreeable. Don't go for her just because she's cool and is therefore easy for you; you can spend the rest of your life with them happily, marry them, have kids - then the special woman comes along, the one that's absolute glory, and what do you do? In attempt to save a hassle you've given yourself to someone that is just basic, and, will always be basic."

"But what if the guy is just basic?" Had been Mingyu's response.

"Yeah, but you're not that bloke." Chan had pointed out. "You're fucking amazing. That's the difference."

Emily was a professional pianist and worked between five large private dancing companies for the rehearsing practices and the delivered productions the company staged.

Mingyu wasn't ashamed that he had met her on the internet; he wasn't ashamed either of after randomly seeing a picture of her playing the piano with a dozen or so pretty skinny ballerinas tucked in around her in a studio, he had...alright, he was a tiny bit ashamed. She had talked of a disasterous former relationship where the man's Mother had chased her from the family home with a wooden spoon in hand, screaming blue murder about how she was completely unacceptable, and, how, she wished, for just oen example of, if not the perfect man, a sweet, reliable, honest, uncomplicated one.

Well, it's not me that's complicated, it's all my friends, Mingyu had thought as a form fo self-comfort as he had slid into her DM's.

"Mingyu!"

Mingyu couldn't believe it.

He had bloody well walked past the restaurant.

He turned back, humiliated, on his heel to see Emily seated seated beneath a large black umbrella with gold faerie lights strung beneath at the al fresco outdoor dining of the restaurant they had agreed to meet at. Mingyu's jaw nearly dropped open.

Emily was absolutely exquisite.

Microscopic, but, exquisite.

She wore a low cowl-necked, three-quarted sleeved, backless dress of white fabric with little watercolour-like pink flowers patterned across it with gold-backed diamoned stud earrings and a tiny diamond on a thin gold chain around her neck with a pearl bracelet on her left wrist.

"Oh, God, I'm so sorry, I can't believe I did that." Mingyu said, coming over to her.

Emily's hands rose to her mouth briefly, smiling widely.

"Are you nervous? Oh, God, you're nervous - don't be nervous!" She told him.

Bloody hell, you literally are like a bloody koala, Mingyu thought to himself as her wide smile settled down and he saw two pimples appear either side of her mouth in her cheeks. Her deep brown eyes gazed up at him.

"Once again, I'm so sorry, I'm in my own head." Mingyu held out his hand to shake, and, he marveled at how tiny, warm and soft Emily's hand was as she shook his hand.

"I'm a long way down for you, aren't I?" Her wide smile come back. "I'll need to carry a box with me otherwise your spine will get curved - you'll be the hunchback of central Seoul."

Mingyu laughed. "And you have to look up at everyone all the time, too, do you get cramps?" As soon as he said it he knew it was stupid. Emily looked up at him.

"Well, I don't really." She answered. "Everyone just gets down to my level."

Mingyu's heart raced with relief as her big smile came back.

Thank God.

Thank fucking God.

"Let's sit down and that waiter will -" Emily said, but, Mingyu interrupted her.

"For you." Mingyu thrust the flowers out in front of him and nearly hit Emily in the face. His internal system shrieked in alarm, but, it was broken by her emittence of a happy coo.

"Oh, I saw you with them and I hoped they were for me." The outer corner's of her eyes crinkled as she smiled, but only very gently.

Christine-Elena's eyes do that, Mingyu thought to himself.

Emily stroked the dusky light pink petal of one of the peony blooms tenderly. "Flowers on the first date..." She said. "You truly are sweet."

"Oh, thank you." Mingyu rubbed the back of his neck, feeling a bit shy for nearly absolutely no reason at all.

They took their seats at the table, and, several long moments later, a waiter appeared with menu's and a tray carrying a jug of water and two crystal tumbler glasses.

"Thank you." Emily told the waiter.

Mingyu noticed the waiter's eyes linger on Emily as he murmured something down to her.

Fuck off, Mingyu thought, looking at the waiter's back. Go on, fuck off

The waiter left.

Prick, Mingyu looked after him.

Emily didn't notice.

"I love the nighttime." Emily told him. "Especially from about ten 'o' clock through to about eleven-thirty. Don't ask me why. I just adore it." She smiled. "I grew up in the countryside, down by the sea. My Grandparents and Parents have apple farms."

"I wouldn't have picked you for a farm girl."

"Oh, I'm not!" She laughed sunnily. "We own the farms and we have farmhands and other labourers."

"Princess in her empire, then?"

Emily's cheeks went pink.

"My Grandfather always says that about me and my sister."

"You've a sister? So do I."

"Oh!" Emily liked that. "Yes, her name's Lottie, she's two years younger than me."

"Short for Charlotte?"

"Yes, but she hates it, makes her sound like a onion."

Mingyu laughed. "I get that." He gazed at Emily. He knew most things about her - what he would usually ask about her at that point in time, well, he already knew about her.

"How is Wonwoo?" Emily asked, knowing that Mingyu lived with him.

"Left me and gone to England for a bit."

Emily laughed. "Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't do that." Her eyes glowed. "Oh, you've been abandoned."

"Thank Christ." Mingyu answered.

Emily sighed, before giggling. "Let's see what the chef's up to..." She said, before picking up her menu. Mingyu copied. "Oh, that's disgusting!"

Mingyu looked up.

"I hate bloody offal." Emily remarked of one dish on the menu that involved lamb kidneys. Mingyu grinned.

"I was thinking of getting that." He teased her.

Emily went chalk-white.

"Oh, I'm kidding." He assured her.

Emily briefly went puce. "I'll kill you for that."

Mingyu attempted to make amends. "At least there's no lamb brains on the menu. My Grandmother used to feed my Dad that as a baby."

Thankfully, Emily laughed, though, it was apalled. "God, your poor Dad!"

"I still think he's got a grudge about that." Mingyu commented airily.

"I don't blame him, I would too." Emily pushed some of her hair back behind her right ear. Mingyu felt quite dopey all of a sudden. "I'm sorry to be a bother, but, do you mind if we just drink? I can't see anything I want to eat."

"Of course, that's fine, I was getting the same to be honest." Mingyu told her. Emily smiled sweetly, relievedly.

"What's your poison?" She asked him. "I'll buy the first bottle since you were so lovely and got me those flowers."

"Oh, uh -" Mingyu's brain suddenly left him. Emily beamed widely. She seemed to be able to tell.

"Do you like red wine?" She questioned.

"Only if it's got saki in it." Mingyu replied.

Emily burst out laughing. "Oh my God, we definitely have to try that, oh my God, yes." She pushed more of her hair back, and, Mingyu felt an infinite sense of pride in being able to make her laugh and smile like that; the feeling was so intense that he was no longer bothered when that waiter returned and practically slimed over Emily, either.

Cunt, a cheerful voice in Mingyu's head went, flipping up two finger's at the waiter's back once he got their order of a bottle of red wine and a bottle of Saki.


	57. FIFTY-SEVEN

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm still planning, forgive me XD

"I've not learned how to draw." Emily told Mingyu.

A cab had taken them back to Mingyu and Wonwoo's home and they were now laying together on the couch in the sitting room, the lamps turned on the sitting room and the television showing some european railway history program, the volume turned down low.

"I've got a good friend who does painting and all of that stuff." Mingyu told her. "He'll give me some things and you can have a go at it."

Emily smiled. "Won't he mind?"

"No." Mingyu answered.

Emily laughed. "That sound great."

"Got something even better."

"Yes?"

"I want to show you something - no, not that, I'm not that rude."

Emily laughed. "Wouldn't matter if you did." She murmured.

Mingyu's eyebrows shot up. "Uh...well, yes." He managed. He got up from the couch and Emily followed him into the former sun-room, now, just known as the piano room for the instrument that Wonwoo kept in there. He turned on the lights and pointed to it. Emily's jaw dropped.

"Oh my God!" She gazed at it in the same way one would look at a tiny child, a tender loving so powerful that neither hell or high water could shift it. "When you told me your friend had a piano, I didn't realize it was...oh, wow!"

"You can play it if you like." Mingyu invited her.

"Oh, no, your neighbours will kill you. The sound is too loud for this time of night." Emily's hands moved as she talked. Mingyu could tell she was longing to try that piano, and, he found her consideration incredible.

"Another time, perhaps." Mingyu gazed down at Emily's tiny figure.

"Yes, another time." Emily smiled.

"I'll, uh -" Mingyu rubbed the back of his neck. "I'll go make up the spare bedroom for you. There's a nice double bed in there, you can spread out like a starfish on it, it's marvellous. And, I just want to say in advance that I'm sorry for the state of the bathroom. Everything's clean enough but I do it tons better, usually." He ran a hand over his face tiredly. He stared down at Emily.

No woman in the world have ever looked at him with such admiration before.

Mingyu felt his insides rock.

"How lucky am I..." Emily said slowly. "..to meet you."

-

Seungcheol came out for breakfast to see Jeonghan in a long grey skirt patterned with black leaves and a dark red jersey turtleneck top with his long blonde hair parted in the centre and tucked behind each of his ears, the curtains then falling down onto his chest. He had porridge and a banana at the kitchen island bench and his phone out, sending a text while the morning news played on the television to the sitting room adjoined without a wall to the kitchen and dining room. Seungcheol smiled. Jeonghan looked up and chuckled at the sight of Seungcheol in his shirt and undercrackers.

"You can leave your hat on..." Jeonghan sung softly. "Want what I'm having or do you just want toast and a coffee or some cereal or something?"

"More bacon sandwhiches than a healthy person should be consuming." Seungcheol answered.

Jeonghan chuckled again.

"Let's go out today." Jeonghan told him. "Just you and me." He folded his arms over one another and leant his elbows on the kitchen island.

Seungcheol gazed over at him. "Yeah, that sounds great." Seungcheol answered, and, he meant it.

-

"Fuck me!"

Wonwoo burst out laughing.

"Come on, duckies, off the bloody road!" Woosung blared the horn of a second vintage Aston Martin that he had, kept in storage in Nottingham, having been collected by he and Wonwoo the morning after arriving in the UK, getting the underground through the London inner-city.

They were barely out of Middlesex and Wonwoo was sure that Woosung was going to have the vein in his right temple erupt.

"You never want to hit them in a car, they are like bloody steel, those fucking things." Woosung told Wonwoo as the ducks eventually waddled off the road. "And never run over rabbit roadkill accidentally either - their ribcages are made to withstand warren collapses, and, they will rip your tyres, no kidding."

As they drove more, Wonwoo couldn't help but be completely bewitched by the sight of the English countryside before him and around him. Wonwoo spent hours with his elbow propped up by the passenger window of the Aston, face held in his hand, gazing out of the glass at the passing villages and scenery, utterly enchanted. Wonwoo couldn't possibly tire of it; he was blown away by how beautiful it was, how vibrant everything was, deep and lusciously green, full-blooming, fully scented, truly alive. It made him realize how bland, how tasteless, how insignificant Korea and it's land was; dry and aryd or marshy and scrappy.


End file.
